Best Buy is offering a great deal on a powerful gaming laptop for the holidays. From now until Sunday, you can pick up the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16s GeForce RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop for just $1,449.99 with free delivery. This is $50 less than the deal I saw during Black Friday. The Helios Neo is a well-equipped laptop, boasting a gorgeous 16" 240Hz OLED display, the latest, Intel Core Ultra 9 HX series processor, and powerful RTX 5070 Ti mobile graphics.

Acer Predator Helios Neo RTX 5070 Ti Laptop for $1,450

If you're a lucky owner of a brand new Nintendo Switch 2 console, you'll definitely want to pick up some extra storage. The Switch 2 only has 256GB of onboard storage, and chances are you'll probably need to expand it down the road. Amazon just lowered the price of the 256GB Samsung P9 MicroSD Express card, which will double your available storage, for just $32.99. As a comparison, the best previous deal I saw on a 256GB memory card was during Cyber Monday for $39.99. You don't have to worry about performance, either. We recently reviewed this exact card and strongly recommend it.

256GB Samsung P9 MicroSD Express Memory Card

Nintendo Switch 2 compatible

If you're planning to gift someone one of the best Xbox or PC gaming controllers for the holidays, then look no further than the official Xbox wireless controller. Both Robot White and Carbon Black models are marked down to $38 with free delivery at various retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Lenovo (it's normally $65). Some of these retailers are still offering delivery by Christmas, but not for much longer.

Xbox Wireless Controllers for $38

Throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday, eBay consistently had the lowest prices on all sizes of the LG Evo C5 4K OLED TV. The only problem was that they were out of stock for the majority of the time and all but disappeared after Cyber Monday ended. For a very limited time, they're back. eBay via Budyig has most sizes of the popular LG Evo C-series OLED TV on sale with an extra 20% off coupon code "HOLIDAYRUSH". Delivery is free, although there's no guarantee these TVs will arrive by December 25. LG is the best selling OLED TV brand globally for a simple reason. It's just that good.

Note that these TVs go out of stock quickly. If you know you want one and you see a deal, jump on it.

LG Evo C5 4K OLED Smart TV Black Friday Deals Are Back

This morning, we learned that November was a surprisingly bad month for video game spending across the board. Hardware dollar sales and physical software unit sales were both at the lowest we've seen since 1995, and all three major console makers were down year-on-year in what's traditionally the biggest month for retail. But one console in particular is really struggling, and that's the Xbox.

According to Circana senior director Mat Piscatella speaking to IGN, Xbox Series consoles dollar sales were down a whopping 70% year-over-year. That's... a huge drop. Other consoles were also down, with PS5 down 40% year-over-year, and the newly-released Nintendo Switch 2 combined with Switch 1 down 10% from sales of Switch 1 only last year, which is pretty shocking on its own.

But that Xbox number is rather astounding. In fact, it's an all-time low for Xbox console unit sales in a November month in the U.S., says Piscatella. Admittedly, Xbox has some factors working against it. As we've already laid out, it's a really bad month for hardware sales across the board. Also, the Xbox Series is now five years old, and with no new hardware refresh this year, there are fewer and fewer reasons to be getting one if you haven't already sprung for an Xbox. In fact, Xbox hardware sales have been in decline for a bit now in the U.S. at least in the busy retail month of November. From 2023 to 2024, Xbox Series sales in November dropped 29%, and from 2022 to 2023, there was a drop of over 20%. 2022 was the last November when unit sales were up, Piscatella tells me, specifically up 11% year-over-year from November 2021.

Critically, though, for 2025, the Xbox is expensive, especially in the US. Piscatella points out to us that its average price per unit rose by over 30% year-over-year. That's because of multiple price hikes in recent years, including some seriously massive ones in September that impacted all types of Xbox Series consoles, raising prices from as little as $20 for Series S to as much as $70 for the Series X 2TB Galaxy Special Edition. And that's after a price hike in May that raised consoles as little as $80 for the Series S and as much as a stunning $130 for the Galaxy Edition. An Xbox Series S, the cheapest of all modern Xbox hardware available now, released at $300 retail, and now costs $400.

And it only goes up from there. There are now rumors and concerns circulating that Xbox may soon raise prices yet again due to skyrocketing prices for RAM, driven by the growth of generative AI. The existing price hikes are happening at least in part due to U.S. tariffs imposed on countries where gaming hardware is manufactured, and while the confusion and uncertainty around what these tariffs would actually be has settled somewhat, the reality of the tariffs themselves has not. Nor is it impossible that those tariffs could shift again in the coming months. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is just generally in rough shape according to basically everyone, with high consumer debt, high inflation, few new jobs, and an increasing unemployment rate. If everyone is worried they can't buy groceries, who's buying a console right now?

While both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch are seeing the impacts of a lot of these same problems, their price hikes have not been nearly as drastic in response. PS5s went up $50 earlier this year, and Nintendo opted to jack up prices on its original Switch and accessories while keeping its new console at the already admittedly higher-than-expected price it was originally set at, for now. Ultimately, this puts the Xbox Series S, and the PS5 All-Digital Edition at $400, and the Nintendo Switch 2 at $450 before sales and discounts. Is it any wonder that people are skipping buying consoles entirely or, if they're buying one at all, they're shelling out $50 more for the brand new one? Or, that if they're shopping for a kid, they're spending $200 on a NEX Playground, which outsold the Xbox Series console in November?

All this amounts to is that everyone is struggling, but the Xbox Series - a console that has largely given up on the idea of exclusives and keeps raising prices repeatedly - is struggling the most. Piscatella tells me that Xbox's hardware sales peak, at least for November, is far behind it, peaking in November 2011, with its second-highest November ever in 2014. If even big day one Game Pass games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 aren't moving the needle to help Xbox hardware regain its former glory, what will?

Xbox, at least, doesn't want to give up on hardware, or so it says. Just this past October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was on record essentially hinting that there would indeed be another new Xbox console eventually, but that it would basically be a PC/console hybrid. At the same time, the company is actively hoping to leave behind big exclusives in favor of a multi-platform strategy. It's already there, in fact, releasing and announcing several major first-party games on PlayStation not too long after their Xbox debuts, and pondering even more. Xbox hardware sales may be floundering, but perhaps a better question to ask is whether or not that matters to Xbox anymore.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

I was so very delighted, and a little bit confused, when I saw the Hori Piranha Plant camera announced for the Nintendo Switch 2. Delighted because, well, just look at the thing – it’s adorable! And confused because… shouldn’t Nintendo have made this thing? Unfortunately, the camera has one big flaw: a 480p sensor. Even though I knew that going in, I’m still profoundly disappointed, because this is an otherwise brilliant little camera.

Before we get to why I’m so bummed out about this camera, there is actually a lot to like. First off, forgetting the webcam part, the Hori Piranha Plant Camera is a fine bauble, modeled after the piranha plants that have popped out of pipes to bite or spit fire at Mario for decades now, and would fit in seamlessly on a shelf of video game ephemera. The polka-dotted head holds the camera sensor, and you can close its mouth to cover the lens, which is just immediately and obviously a great idea. You can tilt the head on its stalk, which is bendy to let you aim the camera, and at the bottom is a USB-C plug you can either plug straight into a Switch or into its green pipe base. The whole kit and caboodle comes with a USB-C cable that’s long-ish, but no more than the one that comes with the first-party Nintendo Switch 2 Camera.

Hori did some clever things with the base. I love that it’s a separate piece, letting you use the camera without it, sticking out of the Switch 2 like a Game Boy Advance Worm Light. You have other options, though. When the camera is plugged into the base, it can stand upright on a table like Nintendo’s camera, although the included cable is so stiff and the Piranha Plant Camera so lightweight that I had to be really careful while placing it or the cable would move, dragging the camera and turning it or threatening to make it fall over. The other option is mounting it – the bottom of the base folds away from a lip on the front you can hook on the front of your TV, in much the same way you’d attach a webcam to a computer monitor.

Unfortunately, this is where things get rocky for the Hori’s cute Switch 2 camera. If you thought it was too good to be true when you saw Hori only charging $39.99, well, that was a good instinct. All of this is absolutely ruined by its 480p sensor and cramped 85-degree field-of-view (FOV). It’s out of touch and out of time, a camera that would have looked dated and cheap 20 years ago. If you’re sitting on a couch several feet away from your Switch 2 and this camera, it’ll look to your friends like you’ve FaceTimed them on a Nintendo DSi.

It’s a night and day difference when you compare it to Nintendo’s first-party camera. In every instance, the Piranha Plant camera produces muddy, dim pictures with so little detail that from my usual comfy gaming couch, my face is the smeary visage of a spooky ghost. The piled up blankets and pillows on my basement couch are unrecognizable white blobs, and the art over my shoulder is barely recognizable as Galactus. And thanks to its super-narrow FOV, it only captures a fragment of the scene that the first-party camera grabs. (Excuse the mess in that shot – my basement entertainment area doubles as my child’s play room.)

This isn’t just an aesthetic issue – the Switch 2 has a really hard time cutting me out properly when I use the background filtering features. Sitting on my couch, the Switch 2 couldn’t separate me from the background at all, leaving a question mark where my face should be. If I leaned way forward, it might show a cut out of that near-featureless horror show version of my face. To get it to consistently show me in the filtering modes, I had to sit in a chair about three feet in front of my TV and the camera, but that’s not practical for me.

Ultimately, it is handheld mode – with the Piranha Plant camera plugged directly into the USB-C port on top of the Switch 2 – that saves Hori’s camera from being simply a novelty, and not just because it’s delightful to have a toothy plant monster sprouting from the top of the Switch 2. It’s compact enough to fit into a slim Switch 2 carrying case, and 480p is totally fine when the camera is inches from your face, allowing the person on the other end of a GameChat session to tell they’re looking at a standard-issue human face and not that of, I don’t know, the Toxic Avenger. It really feels like Hori conceived of this as a handheld-only camera at first – a niche I think ought to be filled, so good on them! – and creating the pipe base as a might-as-well addition to the package.

Still, even if you only want this for handheld mode, it’s got issues. The bendy stalk isn’t bendy enough, and with such a narrow field of view, it’s hard to get it pointed at your face just right. Also, I wish it had a way to brace against the body of the Switch 2 when it’s plugged in, because when I’m making those bending adjustments, I end up feeling like I need to be careful to support the base of the stalk so I’m not adding strain to the USB-C port. Perhaps that’s me being overly cautious, but I’ve broken USB-C ports before by dropping a device that had something plugged into one, and that’s much harder to fix.

Even with these problems, the Hori Piranha Plant Camera might be the best and only viable option if you’re the sort of person who loves kitsch and has a strong desire for an on-the-go GameChat camera. Or if you, like me, have a kid who’s getting a Switch 2 for Christmas and you’re trying to save money and delight them at the same time. There’s the $59.99 Hori alternative, which is still 480p, pricier than even Nintendo’s $55 first-party camera, and isn’t cute. Or you can buy one of several cheaper Amazon options that all look nearly identical to one another and feature nonsense brand names like “TPGSING” and “Sioenl” and could look even worse than the Piranha Plant Camera.

Most people who don’t fall into these two camps shouldn’t buy any of those options, including the Hori Piranha Plant camera, for their Switch 2. The whole novelty Nintendo character aspect just isn’t enough to make up for its ancient-looking camera. That’s a shame, because at $39.99, this camera only needs to clear the low bar of looking about as good as Nintendo’s first-party Switch 2 camera to be worth buying. Oh well.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

In 2008, Suzanne Collins' unleashed The Hunger Games on the world, launching a bestselling book series that would become a globally beloved franchise. Continuing the legacy of satirical stories like Battle Royale and The Running Man, the series centers on PANEM, a North America country that pits its children against each other in grim battles for survival. Out of that brutality comes a figure of hope, Katniss Everdeen.

Three years after the book was released, the first Hunger Games film hit screens, becoming a worldwide blockbuster and setting the stage for four more movies. With a new prequel on the way, we're here to break down how to watch all of movies in order.

Jump to:

• How to watch in chronological order
• How to watch by release date

How Many Hunger Games Movies Are There?

There are now five full-length Hunger Games movies, with a sixth movie releasing in 2026. Unlike many other franchises, there haven't been any short films, TV shows, or extra content (other than plenty of fanfic) created to build out the world of the games, with just the six movies and five books that they're based on.

Where Can You Stream Them?

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is streaming on STARZ, while the other four Hunger Games films are on HBO Max. Otherwise, you can find plenty of different versions on DVD and Blu-ray.

How to Watch The Hunger Games in Chronological Order

1. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Despite the fact that it's the newest addition to the franchise, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes actually takes place 64 years before the other Hunger Games films. Based on the recent prequel of the same name the film follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) — the villainous President of PANEM from the main franchise — and his romance with a talented tribute named Lucy Gray (Rachel Ziegler). Expanding the world of The Hunger Games and exploring the early days of the brutal contest and the origins of its most evil villain, this entry may have come over a decade after the first movie but is just as important as the original films.

Read our review of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

2. The Hunger Games (2012)

Adapting Suzanne Collins' best-selling YA novel this blockbuster smash stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, a young woman who volunteers to take her sister's place in the titular battle to the death. Introducing viewers to the exploitative world of PANEM where people watch children kill each other for entertainment, and ostensibly to punish the citizens for a decades previous failed attempt at revolution. This brutal adventure sows the seeds for the rebellion Katniss will eventually lead after teaming up with her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) to try and survive the fatal events of the Hunger Games tournament.

Of course, this wouldn't be a YA adaptation without the obligatory love triangle which in this case comes from Katniss' closeness to Peeta and her love for her District 12 best friend Gale. Those relationships are key to the future politics and complexities of the Hunger Games, especially when in a shocking twist both Peeta and Katniss survive, leaving the nation of PANEM in uproar as the districts realize they may be able to fight back against their tyrannical government, inspired by Katniss and her rebellious turn in the games. This also sets the sights of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) directly on Katniss, setting up a massive conflict.

Read our review of The Hunger games.

3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Following their rebellion-inspiring survival at the Hunger Games, Peeta and Katniss are paraded around PANEM as star crossed lovers with the intention of quelling the potential uprisings. But when the Capitol declares a special anniversary Hunger Games that will see previous victors brought back to fight again, Peeta and Katniss are soon swept up in another fight for survival.

Centering on the human cost of the games, Catching Fire introduces fan favorite champions Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Johanna (Jena Malone) who must craft an uneasy alliance with Peeta and Katniss to survive the even more high-tech and deadly games. They are far from alone though as we learn more about the burgeoning rebellion in this entry, especially as the film ends with the massive reveal that the once thought to be destroyed District 13, is actually the base of the Rebellion and with Katniss as its figurehead they're ready to fight back against Snow.

Read our review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One (2014)

Splitting the final book in the original Hunger Games trilogy into two, Mockingjay: Part One continues directly on from Catching Fire as Katniss is reunited with her family in District 13. The rebellion is growing exponentially, led by the cold but effective Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) She soon realizes that while Finnick and another champion Beetee (Jeffery Wright) were saved from the arena, Peeta was left behind to be taken by the Capitol. Unlike the first two films, Mockingjay: Part One doesn't feature a Hunger Games and instead focuses on the inner workings of the rebellion as they build up the image of Katniss as the titular Mockingjay.

While she takes part in rebellion actions, Katniss also encourages the rescue of Peeta, Johanna, and Finnick's betrothed Annie (Stef Dawson) from the Capitol. Their rescue is a success thanks to the help of the rebellion and Katniss' childhood best friend Gale — who survived the destruction of their home District 12 — but it's revealed that Peeta has been brainwashed to hate Katniss and the film ends as he tries to assassinate her.

Read our review of Mockingjay Part 1.

5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two (2015)

After her heartbreaking attack at the hands of Peeta, Katniss is traumatized but has to go on the campaign trail as the rebellion try to get the final Capitol controlled District on their side. The final movie in the series reimagines the Hunger Games as President Snow turns an entire city into a gauntlet that our surviving champions have to battle through in order to take down the Capitol. There are brutal losses, heartbreaking betrayals, and a surprisingly realistic and often depressing take on the realities of war and the ongoing battle for peace that is highlighted when the Rebellion leader Alma Coin decides to continue the Hunger Games to punish the Capitol. Of course Katniss doesn't take well to that choice, killing the would-be new President, ending up on trial but ultimately acquitted — due to her mental health — for her role in the assassination.

One of the most interesting things about this entry into the series is how it proudly eschews the happy ending that many would expect instead leaning into the bleakness of war and how even those who survive it struggle to maintain a normal life when they return home. In that way it stands out from other YA adaptations that often end on a more positive and hopeful note.

Read our review of Mockingjay Part 2.

The Hunger Games Movies by Release Date

If you want to watch the films based on the order of their release, you'll want to start with the second movie on our chronological list.

• The Hunger Games (2012)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One (2014)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two (2015)
• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
• The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026)

What's Next for The Hunger Games

Soon after author Suzanne Collins announced a new Hunger Games prequel, Lionsgate announced it was working on the film adaptation. Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 24 years before The Hunger Games, placing it second in the film's narrative chronology after The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The book released on March 18, 2025, while the movie adaptation is scheduled to hit theaters on November 20, 2026. The cast includes Kieran Culkin, Jesse Plemons, and Ralph Fiennes, and Elle Fanning.

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more. Rosie is a published comics author who has written titles including Godzilla Rivals vs. Battra and The Haunted High-Tops. She co-hosts the weekly Crooked Media pop-culture podcast X-Ray Vision. When she's not writing, you can find her playing Dragon Ball FighterZ or rewatching weird old horror and martial movies in her free time. She loves making comics and zines as well as collecting VHS and reading much manga as humanly possible. You can find her on social at @rosiemarx.

Fallout 5 will indeed take into account the canon events of the Fallout TV series, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has confirmed.

While Fallout 5 is years away (Bethesda is still working on The Elder Scrolls 6, which doesn’t have a release window), Howard said that what we see in the Fallout series will impact the game.

"In short, yes," Howard told BBC Newsbeat. "Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account."

The Fallout TV show, which is set after all the existing Fallout video games, has sparked much debate within the fandom. Questions on how it fits into the overarching Fallout timeline and whether it makes particular video game endings canon have dominated discussion in the run up to each season’s release. Indeed, Fallout Season 2 had left fans wondering about the fate of New Vegas following the events of the video game, although the show’s creators have avoided making a clear call.

What Howard is confirming here is that TV show characters such as Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul and the events of the show must now be factored into Fallout 5, although we don’t know when or where the game will be set. Could either actually appear in Fallout 5? It sounds like it’s possible, but we’ll have to see what happens in the show itself.

It’s worth remembering that we’re guaranteed Fallout Season 3, and the hope is there will be more seasons after that. There’s a long way to go before the show wraps up, and there’s a long way to go before Fallout 5 comes out. In the meantime, could Bethesda follow The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and release a remaster of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, or perhaps even a Fallout: New Vegas 2 as a stop gap? In a recent interview with IGN, Howard remained coy on the possibility.

We’ve got plenty more on the Fallout TV show. Check out IGN's Fallout Season 2 Episodes 1-6 review to find out what we think of it, as well as our roundup of details and Easter eggs.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

It’s a term used to describe a huge amount of games released every year, but what does “action-adventure” even mean? It’s a good question. Here at IGN, we classify any game that fuses combat with a genuine sense of exploration as action-adventure. They often take place in open worlds, but that’s not a mandatory requirement (see the likes of Uncharted and God of War), and so this flexible format allows for a wide range of different projects to make the cut this year, from the tightly crafted co-op platforming action of Split Fiction and the vast, isolated, do-it-yourself atmosphere of Death Stranding 2, to the adventures of banana-hunting apes and revenge-seeking ronin. So let’s get on with it as swiftly as a Hornet and reveal the runners-up and ultimate winner of our award for the Best Action-Adventure Game of 2025.

Runner-Up - Split Fiction

Following on from the wonderful It Takes Two, developer Hazelight took things to the next level when it comes to scale in Split Fiction and continued to hone its craft as the modern-day masters of the co-op game. Much of its story is spent platforming and puzzle-solving, but a healthy amount is also reserved for combat against its many varied sci-fi and fantasy-laced foes, as well as exploration of its larger-scale levels. It never once stands still, constantly evolving and switching up its mechanical ideas to match each world’s colourful set dressing. That sense of exciting propulsion along an ever-changing journey, balanced with areas designed for you to slow down a little and hunt for secrets and surprising side missions, is what makes Split Fiction one of our top five action-adventure games of the year.

Runner-Up - Ghost of Yotei

Perhaps the most traditional “action-adventure” on our list, Ghost of Yotei follows in a long line of PlayStation Studio exclusives that firmly fit that mold. Telling the story of revenge-seeking wandering Ronin, Atsu, Yotei takes everything that made people fall in love with its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, and tweaks it for the better. Where action is concerned, its slick sword, spear, and kusarigama combat is a real star of the show, with new-age weaponry such as firearms also brought into the mix to expand this ghost’s arsenal. In terms of adventure, 17th-century Hokkaido plays stage to as beautiful a looking and sounding world as you could step into in 2025, with no shortage of collectibles, side stories, and show-stopping duels to engage with. Sucker Punch’s latest is the Seattle studio’s most accomplished effort to date, and one of this year’s very best action-adventures.

Runner-Up - Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza encourages you to explore its many sandbox levels, not through careful investigation, but by smashing every corner of them into tiny pieces to see what secrets lurk inside. Nintendo’s modern 3D reinvention of what its beloved ape could be in 2025 quickly became the Switch 2’s must-have game, and for good reason. Bananza is a feast for treasure hunters, with hundreds of glowing bananas begging to be uncovered through destruction courtesy of DK’s pounding fists and many special abilities. Those skills are at the heart of it all, with the titular Bananzas powering inventive new ways to adventure through each of its themed levels. From the rampaging Kong Bananza that allows you to unleash a monstrous fury capable of breaking the toughest of terrain, as well as any enemy’s soon-to-be dust skeleton, to the wing-flapping Ostrich Bananza that allows for new heights to be soared to. It’s far from conventional, even by Nintendo 3D platforming standards, but Donkey Kong Bananza is one of this year’s very best when it comes to action-adventure.

Runner-Up - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Speaking of unconventional, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach certainly isn’t worried about obeying genre norms. An action-adventure that’s never afraid to show, tell, or have you engage with things you’ve never quite seen before, Kojima Productions’ latest is the fulfillment of a promise made in its predecessor. That’s not to say that there isn’t the familiar to be found here, with its increased focus on combat echoing memories of its creator’s Metal Gear Solid roots, thanks to an expanded range of options when it comes to approaching its stealth-action. It’s in its adventure, and the exploration of themes of grief and human connection at its centre, that make each of Sam Porter Bridges’ challenging steps through a post-apocalyptic Australia in Death Stranding 2 really sing, though, and one of this year’s very best action-adventures.

Winner - Hollow Knight: Silksong

Not only is it a huge relief that Hollow Knight: Silksong finally came out in 2025, but an even bigger one that it turned out to be so great. Placing an even greater emphasis on the action part of “action-adventure” than its predecessor, Team Cherry delivered a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding sequel via the tip of protagonist Hornet’s needle. That rapier-like blade will get plenty of use, too, with sprawling caverns laden with all manner of darting foes and patience-testing bosses possessing all manner of attack patterns, which once learned unlock the path to ultimate satisfaction.

Boss battles are only half of the, well, battle, when it comes to Silksong, though, with exploration still providing the meat of this Metroidvania/Soulslike soup. Breakable walls hide valuable materials behind them, and side quests encourage careful investigation into each of its many biomes, whether on the hunt for precious bounties or searching for missing fleas that need to be reunited with their traveling caravan companions. It’s this balance of both action and adventure that has turned the Hollow Knight series into such a phenomenon, and, in turn, Silksong into the winner of our award for best action-adventure game of 2025.

Is Silksong your pick for the best action-adventure game of the year, or would you have chosen differently? Vote for your favourite in the poll above, or let us know in the comments below.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

Superheroes, ronin, insect warriors, and postal service workers. Whatever your fantasy this year, PlayStation could deliver it. But which PS5 game was the best? We at IGN have voted and picked out what we think are the five most worthy of recognition from across 2025, naming one of them the very best PlayStation game of the year, as well as shouting out a few honourable mentions that were very close to making the cut.

In an era where console exclusives are a dying breed, as Sony’s competitor, Microsoft, has shown us more than ever over the past few months, we’ve made the decision this year to branch out and open up the criteria for what can win our platform-specific awards. These aren’t the top five Sony exclusives, but the top five games that were released on PS5 in 2025, full stop. So, without further ado, let’s get on with it and crown the best PlayStation game of 2025 before we all die of old age.

Honorable Mentions

One of the best games from early in the year was Hazelight’s Split Fiction, the endlessly inventive co-op action platformer that just narrowly missed out on a top-five spot. Also just missing out are a pair of 2025’s breakout indie hits, Blue Prince and Ball X Pit. These two couldn’t be more different from each other, though, with the former brain-bending mansion full of puzzles a much calmer affair than the brick-breaking chaos of the latter. And then there’s two big shooters that came along at the end of the year. Battlefield 6’s multiplayer has seen it return to the glorious, huge-scale carnage that fans wanted, and Arc Raiders has proven a massive success thanks to its “just one more extraction” nature. Rounding out on honourable mentions are a pair of games that like to do things a bit differently when it comes to narrative: Atomfall and Silent Hill f. Both create uneasy worlds in their own ways, and we admire them for their freeform and steadily revealing approaches to storytelling, respectively.

Runner-Up - Hollow Knight: Silksong

It finally happened. 2025 was the year that Hollow Knight: Silksong saw the light of day, and what a relief that we not only got to play it, but it was also extremely good. Team Cherry’s much-anticipated sequel may be a whole lot more punishing than the original, but it is still home to that same magic, which can be found all over its sprawling, bug-sized world full of secret nooks and crannies. The platforming pathways to get to those places are tight and challenging, with new lead, Hornet, showing off a fresh batch of skills stemming from her fundamentally game-changing diagonal dart. But it’s in combat where she really comes into her own, promoting a more aggressive style of play which lets you take the fight to Silksong’s bestiary of bosses. These tough creatures of all shapes and sizes with nasty tricks up their sleeves may have presented some of 2025’s biggest roadblocks, but persevere, and the glory waiting behind them leads to one of this year’s greatest games.

Runner-Up - Dispatch

Superhero drama Dispatch manages to recapture the magic of those Telltale-esque episodic visual novels that we all fell in love with a decade or so ago. Following the story of Robert Robertson, a hero who is nothing without his now-destroyed mech suit, it's a heartwarming tale of redemption that isn’t without its fair share of bite, too. Managing your many relationships, both personal and professional, as they intertangle at Robbie’s place of work, the Superhero Dispatch Network, is key, as is making sure your team of down-and-out supervillains successfully try their hand at crime-stopping.

This half of the game adds a real-time sim management wrinkle to each chapter, as you boost the skills of your squad and send them out on missions that match their skillset. From the hot-head Flambae, to the internet’s new favourite demon Mommy, Malevola, you’re in command of a vibrant and varied bunch that each offer a fun dynamic to each and every scene they’re in. But it's outside of the SDN office monitor that Dispatch really comes to life, as Robertson’s life crumbles around him, and your best attempts at rebuilding it are hidden behind dialogue choices. What comes of its cast of characters, headlined by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as Robbie, and with Laura Bailey’s Invisagal stealing most scenes, is up to you. One thing that is guaranteed, though, is a great time.

Runner-Up - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

In many ways, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach finally fulfilled the promise of its flawed predecessor. Creator Hideo Kojima’s second slice of post-apocalypse delivery adventures dialled up the action, echoing his past Metal Gear Solid successes, whilst still maintaining that singular, lonely vision of a disconnected world. Taking Sam Porter Bridges to Australia, On the Beach hands you a much expanded range of combat options, from silenced sniper rifles to homing missile mechanical dogs, and permits you to go about completing its many, many postal orders however you’d like. This freedom is not just a combat feature, but is reflected in how you go about navigating each of these treacherous delivery routes, too, with new ways to travel over stormy deserts and raging rivers, including huge, looming monorail systems and bonkers coffin hoverboards.

But the weirdness is just one aspect of Death Stranding — and there’s no shortage of it this time around, thanks to Troy Baker’s excellent return as villain Higgs — as its themes of love and loss ultimately dominate, no matter how large the spectacle on screen. Lea Seydoux is subtly brilliant as Fragile, and drives the story from start to finish as the connections between herself, Sam, and baby Lou are steadily revealed. It’s a fantastic example of a vision come to life, and easily one of the best PlayStation games to have come out in 2025.

Runner-Up - Ghost of Yotei

Following up on 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima was always going to be a challenge, but developer Sucker Punch rose to it impressively well with Ghost of Yotei. This sword-slashing epic borrows everything that we loved from its predecessor, but improves on almost all of it in a multitude of fun little ways. The pulsating combat opens up further, with new weapons and skills introduced to deepen its familiar dodge, block, parry, and swing system. Among those additions is the highly satisfying disarming mechanic that has your protagonist, Atsu, send her enemies' blades flying from their grasp. But it's this wandering ronin’s story that drives Yotei’s momentum, turning a simple tale of revenge into something much more beautiful as you explore each corner of its historical Japanese map and soak in both the audio and visual majesty on show

Winner - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Surprise! Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has won another award. It really is that good, though, isn’t it? Sandfall Interactive’s ode to Final Fantasy of years gone by takes that age-old formula and thrusts it firmly into 2025 with lashings of style, soaring music, and a battle system that melds classic turn-based RPG mechanics with exciting real-time elements, making each and every encounter a thrill. All of that style would be nothing without substance, though, and while its combat excites from moment to moment, it’s Clair Obscur’s poignant story and layered cast of characters that make it live long in the memory. Jennifer English is pitch-perfect as Maelle at the heart of Expedition 33’s plot, with Ben Starr’s Verso a wonderful foil as its twisted themes of grief and what it is to love are untangled. All played out in front of a ticking backdrop of the Gommage — a yearly tolling doomsday clock for anyone of a certain age — it’s wonderfully cinematic, making it fit right in alongside many of Sony’s first-party blockbuster offerings.

Taking inspiration from the original PlayStation’s library of Japanese RPGs and bringing those ideas into the future, thanks to an all-timer video game story supported by a combat system as satisfying as it is nuanced, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the clear winner of our award for Best PlayStation Game of 2025.

What was your favourite PS5 game of 2025? Let us know in the comments! For more IGN awards, you can check them all out in one place here, including our picks for the best Xbox and Nintendo games of the year.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

While there were many titles to choose from (just look at all the honorable mentions!), these are IGN staff’s picks for the year’s very best in our combined Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie category.

The Predator franchise returned in a big way this year thanks to director Dan Trachtenberg, whose two Predator movies both made our top five. We count Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein as sci-fi because, well, Mary Shelley’s book is one of the very first sci-fi novels ever published.

While Predator movies and del Toro’s Netflix epic may have had greater visibility, we didn’t want to overlook quirkier fare like Companion or Mickey 17 when selecting our nominees for the year’s best offerings in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Honorable Mentions go to Superman, Bugonia, 28 Years Later, How to Train Your Dragon, KPop Demon Hunters, Elio, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Legend of Ochi, Arco, OBEX, and Thunderbolts*. (Editor’s note: Avatar: Fire and Ash did not screen for enough staff in time for IGN awards consideration.)

Read on to find out which film is IGN’s best sci-fi or fantasy movie of 2025.

Runner-Up: Predator: Badlands

Prey director Dan Trachtenberg returned to the Predator franchise twice this year, first with the animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers (more on that below) and again with Predator: Badlands, the first entry in the nearly 40-year-old franchise to make the titular alien its main protagonist instead of the villain.

The simplistic yet surprisingly emotional Predator: Badlands followed a similar rites of passage story as Prey did, this time following a young Yautja named Dek (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who seeks to prove himself on a planet where even the trees are deadly.

Badlands is a fun, action-packed romp that also further developed the culture of the Yautja and even offered a healthy dose of humor thanks to teaming a Predator with an Alien franchise synthetic named Thea (Elle Fanning).

Runner-Up: Companion

Drew Hancock’s directorial debut is a sci-fi thriller that offers a mix of humor and bursts of violence to tell the story of a woman who discovers she’s a robot companion caught up in a larger scheme.

Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid are both great as Iris and her owner/boyfriend Josh, with both actors nicely subverting any audience expectations based on their personas from past projects such as Yellowjackets or The Boys, respectively.

This clever and occasionally vicious film ratches up the anticipation as Iris endures one stunning revelation after another.

Runner-Up: Predator: Killer of Killers

Directed by Prey and Predator: Badlands filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, this Hulu release is the first entry in the franchise to be animated, but that doesn’t mean it pulled back on the graphic bloodshed the series is known for. It’s also the franchise’s first anthology film, telling four different stories of Yautja hunting humans (specifically Vikings, samurai, World War II fighter pilots, and then one other tale which we won’t spoil here).

“Its journey through several time periods is the perfect way to give us multiple Predator stories that each have their own distinct flavor and action highlights,” Eric Goldman said in his Predator: Killer of Killers review for IGN, praising Trachtenberg for “understanding how to provide both Predators and human characters who can kick ass and creatively prove their mettle, no matter which side of the hunt they begin on.”

Runner-Up: Mickey 17

Bong Joon Ho followed up his IGN Best Movie of 2019 winner Parasite (oh, yeah, and Oscar winner, too) with what our critic Siddhant Adlakha called “a jet-black, mean-as-hell sci-fi comedy about a near future in which life itself has been corporatized and reduced in value by a foppish upper class that hides its totalitarian aims behind supposed religious values.”

Robert Pattinson plays multiple incarnations of an “Expendable” worker who is repeatedly killed and re-cloned in order to perform dangerous jobs for an all-powerful corporation. Mickeys 17 and 18 are a pair of oddball sad sacks, and yet they still improbably become the resistance to Mark Ruffalo’s Trump-coded leader in this nihilistic, politically charged film that can often be, to paraphrase Adlakha’s Mickey 17 review, as depressing as it is farcical.

Winner: Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro finally realized one of his lifelong dream projects with this sumptuously crafted adaptation of Mary Shelley’s pioneering sci-fi novel. As epic as his film is across the board, del Toro’s Frankenstein is, at its core, an intimate, thoughtful story about generational trauma and forgiveness.

While Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth both shine in their leading roles, it’s Jacob Elordi’s career-redefining performance as the Creature that stands out the most, giving the film a heart, soul and an elegance missing from so many past Frankenstein films. “This iteration of Frankenstein is, like its Creature, a beautiful, haunting thing through which classic themes are made to feel fresh and new,” IGN’s Scott Collura observed in his Frankenstein review.

With Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro has made a movie that stands (reanimated) head and (mismatched) shoulders above the rest in this year’s Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie category.

But what do you think? Was Frankenstein the greatest sci-fi/fantasy movie of 2025, or would you pick a different film? Let us know in the comments below, vote in our poll, and be sure to check out our various other best of awards for 2025 across film, TV, gaming, and comics. We’ll see you in 2026.

James Cameron has said Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time as the iconic Terminator is officially over. He instead wants a new generation of characters for the next film in the franchise.

The 78-year-old Schwarzenegger is the only actor to have appeared in all six Terminator films, although he only made it into 2009’s Terminator Salvation via a CGI rendering of his face (perhaps because of this, Schwarzenegger considers Salvation to be the worst film in the franchise).

Here are all the Terminator films released so far:

• The Terminator October 26, 1984
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day July 3, 1991
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines July 2, 2003
• Terminator Salvation May 21, 2009
• Terminator Genisys July 1, 2015
• Terminator: Dark Fate November 1, 2019

Terminator has for some time now been languishing in the doldrums, despite similar 80s and 90s sci-fi franchises such as Alien and Predator enjoying a resurgence. The last movie Cameron directed in the franchise was Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He had no involvement with the three sequels that followed but returned as a producer on Terminator: Dark Fate — a movie he said he was "reasonably happy" with, though he suggested it might have worked better without the original stars.

In 2022, Cameron said another Terminator reboot was "in discussion," but nothing was set in stone, and we’ve heard nothing since. He said at the time: "If I were to do another Terminator film and maybe try to launch that franchise again, which is in discussion, but nothing has been decided, I would make it much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy."

Now, on the eve of Avatar: Fire and Ash’s launch in theaters, Cameron has issued his strongest comment yet that a new Terminator film will finally get off the ground. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron said that after Avatar settles down in a few months, he’s going to turn his attention to Terminator.

“Once the dust clears on Avatar in a couple of months, I’m going to really plunge into that,” he said. “There are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what’s really happening to make it science fiction?”

THR suggested Cameron has indeed solved this narrative problem, although he did not say how. What he did say, however, is that Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be in this new Terminator movie.

“I can safely say he won’t be [in it],” Cameron confirmed. “It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”

That's that, then, for Arnie as the Terminator, even in CGI or AI-powered de-aged form. The 72-year-old Cameron is keeping his cards close to his chest, but it does indeed sound like he wants Terminator to leave the past behind and deliver something truly new. He also insisted he won’t do fan-friendly callbacks, as TV show Alien: Earth has done. “I’m not criticizing it, but I was there for Aliens, what, 41 years ago?” he said. “Something like that wouldn’t be of interest to me.”

“The things that scare you the most are exactly the things you should be doing,” Cameron added. “Nobody should be operating artistically from a comfort zone.”

The question of how a new Terminator project might fit into Cameron’s well-documented hopes for more Avatar movies is an interesting one. Cameron recently admitted he was “absolutely” ready to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops, which would mean Avatar 4 and 5, which have release dates, wouldn’t get made.

“I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

With Blumhouse’s next Five Nights at Freddy's film now in theaters, there’s no better time to play through the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. Created by Scott Cawthon, the first Five Nights at Freddy's game launched back in 2014 and has since garnered an incredible fan base. The horror hit has been followed with a wide variety of sequels; from mainline games to plenty of spinoffs.

For those interested in taking on the night shift against these killer animatronics, we’ve detailed how to play each of the mainline FNAF games in both chronological and release date order below.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
• How to play by release order

How Many Five Nights at Freddy’s Games Are There?

There are 12 main FNAF games in total, which we’ve covered below. As far as spin-offs and more challenge-based games go, though, there are 4 additional FNAF games that fall in this category. These are Five Nights at Freddy’s World, Freddy in Space 2, Security Breach: Fury’s Rage, and Ultimate Custom Night.

Which Five Nights at Freddy's Game Should You Play First?

We recommend starting with Five Nights at Freddy's, the series' first entry from 2014. It's the ideal way to familiarize yourself with the series' mechanics, as newer entries build on that original formula. It's also a safe way to begin from a narrative perspective given how convoluted the chronology has become over the last decade.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Games in Chronological Order

For those looking to play through the Five Nights at Freddy’s games in chronological order to get the full story, we’ve done our best to arrange them in story order. If you have different theories about this franchise’s order, though, share them in the comments!

1. Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic (2025)

Available on: PC, PS5

The newest FNAF game happens to be the earliest-set game in the series so far. Secret of the Mimic, from what we can gather from various hints in-game, takes place in 1979, several years before the official opening of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The Mimic was originally introduced in the Ruin DLC for Security Breach, and plenty of theories have been thrown out there about who (or what) The Mimic really is.

Secret of the Mimic dives into these questions. The player takes on the role of a Fazbear technician named Arnold who's tasked with retrieving the Edwin Murray's inventions from a particularly unsettling Costume Manor. When power goes out at the manor, Arnold begins to notice signs he may not be alone. Secret of the Mimic uses first-person view, leaning into the survival horror genre with subtle hints about the killer animatronics (and their creators) we encounter later in the series.

2. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (2015)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 takes place in 1983. This is assumed because of an easter egg during one of the post-Night minigames that can be seen by interacting with a TV in the living room. After hitting it enough times, it’ll eventually bring up a still for a commercial for a show called Fredbear and Friends, which appears to have aired in 1983, given that’s the date beneath the title.

Compared to its predecessors, though, FNAF 4 has a different setting. This time, you play as a young child in their bedroom rather than as a security guard in an office. Throughout the night, you’ll need to run from your bedroom doors to your closet (and even check behind you on your bed) for a variety of terrifying enemies, but mainly nightmare variations of the original animatronics: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. Listen out for them and keep your flashlight close to scare them away.

3. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2014)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is next in a chronological playthrough and brings players to the newly-opened Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza to work the night shifts as a security guard. FNAF 2 also introduces new animatronics in the mix alongside updated versions of its classics. These new additions are The Puppet and Balloon Boy, so you’ll have more to watch out for on the cameras.

This time around, you’re also given a Freddy Fazbear head to wear in case the animatronics happen to reach your office. With it on, most of the animatronics will have a harder time recognizing you and leave, which’ll buy you some more time before the crack of dawn. You also have a music box that you need to keep wound up to keep The Puppet away. This animatronic won’t be fooled by your sneaky little fake Freddy head, so make sure to keep the music box going.

We’ve placed this game as second in line for a chronological playthrough, as it’s set in 1987. This can be assumed from the paycheck you receive at the end of Night 5, which is dated for that year.

4. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (2016)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

In a departure from the previous game, and as its title may point to, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location takes place at a different spot called Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, which features its own animatronics as well. This time around, you play as a technician working night shifts with a series of tasks to complete alongside surviving the animatronics.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location is actually a bit trickier to place on the timeline, and many fans still debate when it could be set. The reason we’ve chosen this slot is because of a line HandUnit says at the beginning of the game: “Due to the massive success, and even more so, the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set, no pun intended, for another contender in children’s entertainment.” This line could be referencing when Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed down in ‘87 following FNAF 2, which is also brought up by Phone Guy in FNAF 1 during Night 1. So, for now, having Sister Location between the two seems like a good fit. Let us know your theories in the comments below, though!

5. Five Nights at Freddy’s (2014)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

The one that started it all. Five Nights at Freddy’s was the first game that had players taking on the security guard mantle to keep watch of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza for five night shifts. Mainly, you need to keep an eye on the animatronics there: Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and of course, Freddy Fazbear. Their behavior has become a bit unpredictable lately, and they like to roam around freely at night… just make sure they don’t roam into your office.

Alongside the cameras that need to be checked, players can also close the security doors near them if the animatronics get too close during the night. Keep in mind, though, you only have limited amounts of power to use. Once it’s gone, goodbye doors and lights!

Five Nights at Freddy’s takes place a few years later than the previously mentioned games, likely sometime in the early ‘90s. This can be assumed from Phone Guy’s dialogue during Night 1 where he says that the animatronics used to be able to walk around during the day, “but then there was the bite of ‘87.” This helps place it after FNAF 2 and before FNAF3, which we’ll get to next.

6. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit (2024)

Available on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Into the Pit, the latest game in the series, is a point-and-click adventure based on the Five Nights at Freddy's book of the same name. The story is split between two time periods: modern day and 1985.

It's uncertain where Into the Pit's modern storyline fits into the series' chronology, or if it exists within the ongoing narrative at all, though assuming it does, we're confident it takes place around the time of Five Nights at Freddy's 3. We've placed it ahead of FNaF3 given several items found in Jeff's Pizza, the setting of Into the Pit, can be found at FNaF3's Fazbear's Fright, which was said to be decorated with remains from the original restaurant, which later became Jeff's Pizza.

7. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 (2015)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

According to Five Nights at Freddy’s 3’s Steam description, this game is set “Thirty years after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed its doors,” which would put it after the events of FNAF 1, given that’s when Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed for good, and, if we’re going with the early ‘90s, would set it sometime around the 2020s. It brings players into a brand new location as well… Fazbear’s Fright: The Horror Attraction. Yes, this new attraction is based on the terrifying events that happened in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and they even have old animatronics from it to really keep you on your toes!

Once again, you step into the shoes of a security guard keeping watch of the attraction and its “great new relics” that have been picked up. Like before, you’ll have security cameras to monitor, but this time you also have a maintenance panel to reboot systems that go offline and close off vents to prevent those creepy animatronics from crawling toward your office space.

8. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (2017)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

If you’re feeling tired of working security or maintenance, why not make the jump into running your own pizza place? In Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator, you get to do just that. But don’t worry, this game isn’t without its frights. You’ll still need to keep the animatronics away from you when in your office, and there’s plenty to monitor when you’re in there as well.

Not only do you have a computer near you to keep tabs on everything and complete your tasks, but you’ll need to watch the vents on both sides of you for anything that could be crawling through. However, both your computer and the vents make quite a bit of noise, so you’ll have to take turns shutting them off to hear your surroundings.

Throughout the game, you’ll salvage animatronics as well. One of these is Springtrap, whose first appearance in the series was in FNAF 3, which places this game sometime after it in a chronological playthrough.

9. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted (2019)

Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, Oculus Quest, PSVR, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted was the franchise’s first step into VR - and later came out on PC and consoles. Developed by Steel Wool Studios in collaboration with Scott Cawthon, in Help Wanted you can play through a variety of mini-games that feature familiar animatronics and experiences from earlier games in the series.

But where does this game fit into the timeline? During the opening ‘Welcome’ message for the game, HandUnit states that “Fazbear Entertainment has developed something of a bad reputation over the last few decades, [...] That's why we have recreated many of these completely fictitious scenarios (lies) that you've been fed over the last several years into a hilarious VR game.” And given that Help Wanted recreates situations from previous games in the timeline up to FNAF 3 on our list, it makes sense to place it after that game and near Pizzeria Simulator.

10. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Special Delivery (2019)

Available on: IOS/Android

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Special Delivery is an Augmented Reality game that was released on mobile devices just a few months after Help Wanted. Much like how Help Wanted immersed you into FNAF in VR, Special Delivery did the same by bringing the animatronics home to you. In this game, you have to keep an eye out for them on your mobile device as they stalk around the room, utilizing a flashlight and controlled shock to stop them.

Similar to Help Wanted, Special Delivery involves its own branch of Fazbear Entertainment. Here, the Fazbear Funtime Service is what’s sending the animatronics to your house and, when it comes to the franchise’s timeline, it would make sense that they’d create something like this around the time of The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience in Help Wanted. Given how HandUnit explains at the start of Help Wanted that, “Fazbear Entertainment is excited to join the digital age, and what better way to do that than with an edge-of-your-seat virtual reality experience,” it sounds like that was their first endeavor, and this would be their second outing into it.

11. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach (2021)

Available on: Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Security Breach is the second game in the franchise to be developed between both Scott and Steel Wool Studios, following Help Wanted. It’s a free-roam survival horror where you play as a young boy named Gregory who gets trapped at night in Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex. Throughout the night, he’ll need to survive the various animatronics, but with a surprising helpful hand along the way.

In a chronological playthrough, this game comes in last. This can largely be taken away from the fact that Freddy Fazbear’s has now grown into a Mega Pizzaplex, but there’s also a moment in one of the endings that helps confirm that it’s set after one of the previously mentioned games. However, so as to avoid spoilers, we’ll let you uncover that ending on your own!

The free Ruin DLC for Security Breach is also available to play now. Our Security Breach wiki guide has a walkthrough, collectibles guide, and information on how to start the Ruin DLC if you need it, too.

12. Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2 (2023)

Available on: PlayStation 5, PC, PSVR2, Steam VR, Meta Quest

Once again developed by Steel Wool Studios in collaboration with Scott Cawthon, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 is pretty similar to its predecessor, featuring a wide variety of minigames for you to dig into. But where does this game land on the Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline?

Help Wanted 2 takes place between Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach and its DLC, RUIN. That makes it the last full game in the lore’s current timeline, but not quite the very final event. This slightly complicated placement is due to one of Help Wanted 2’s endings, in which your character becomes the Maskbot that gives the V.A.N.N.I mask to Cassie, the protagonist from the RUIN DLC. This interaction with her happens towards the start of RUIN, meaning the events of Help Wanted 2 start sometime before that DLC.

In keeping with its older sibling, Help Wanted 2 is also a VR game! It’s available on PSVR 2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest. And for those who don’t want to be fully immersed as a Fazbear employee, a flat version of the game was also released on June 20 for PlayStation 5 and PC.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Games in Release Order

If you’re interested in playing through the main Five Nights at Freddy’s games in their release order, you can find them listed as such below:

• Five Nights at Freddy’s (2014)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2014)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 (2015)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (2015)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (2016)
• Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (2017)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted (2019)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery (2019)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach (2021)
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted 2 (2023)
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit (2024)
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic (2025)

The Future of Five Nights at Freddy’s

There's no official word on new Five Night's at Freddy's games in development, though we're sure they exist. In the meantime, a sequel to the Five Nights at Freddy's movie starring Josh Hutcherson just hit theaters. If you're not afraid of spoilers, feel free to check out Matt Donato's review of the movie for IGN.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

The holiday period is a great time to catch up on some of this year’s games that may have passed you by. If Ninja Gaiden 4 was on your list of games to play, Best Buy is offering a $15 discount on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions right now as part of its Deal of the Day (see it here).

This offer brings its price down from $69.99 to $54.99, which is a nice little early holiday treat to jump on. Again, since it’s part of Best Buy's Deal of the Day selection, the timer on its sale page has already started counting down until the end of today. Now is the time to take advantage of this limited-time deal and add it to your library for a little less.

Save $15 on Ninja Gaiden 4 (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X)

If Star Trek Discovery ever made you curious about "The Burn," that 31st Century disaster that crippled the Federation, then the comic series Star Trek: The Last Starship is for you. This series follows the last starship crew left standing after every warp core in the galaxy explodes. And most intriguingly of all, they count the resurrected Captain James T. Kirk as a crew member.

We've seen how exactly Kirk is resurrected centuries after his death, but many questions still remain. Those questions will have to wait, though, as Captain Sato and the crew of the USS Omega are dealing with a major Klingon attack. Star Trek: The Last Starship #3 not only chronicles a bloody battle between the Omega and the Klingon fleet, but it ends with arguably the greatest tragedy in the history of the Federation. Earth has declared independence, abandoning the high-minded ideals it represented for so long.

To break down that shocking twist and the other big developments in The Last Starship #3, IGN spoke with writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing. Read on to learn more and to see an exclusive preview of Star Trek: The Last Starship #4.

IGN: Issues #2 and #3 really highlight the contrast between Kirk and Captain Sato and how the latter is having to confront the necessity of war for the first time in his career. Do you see that as one of the core struggles of the series, where members of the Federation are having to face a new reality after an era of such unprecedented peace?

Collin Kelly: Absolutely. Captain Sato is a child of that peace; Starfleet’s best captain, the Picard of the age. There’s a reason this story began in his shining moment just as it burns. When a fully functioning system falls apart, the ensuing vacuum can give rise to anything …and sadly, just like in our own time, the first thing to rise is violence.

Jackson Lanzing: The dialectic between Sato’s experience and Kirk’s is the center of the entire series - and I think readers can really start to see how that will grow after the events of issue #3. Sato tried to solve the Klingon situation peacefully, but that left him with dead comrades and a hopeless stand. He sees Kirk’s methods as brutal, as ancient - it’s like if the Joint Chiefs gave the nuclear codes to Genghis Khan. But it works - at least, it keeps the Omega alive. But in the process, Sato not only loses something crucial - his innocence - but Kirk witnesses the true wages of that violence: a burning Earth, ready to turn its back on everything it stood for. This is an opening debate about methods and means. It won’t be the last. And it’ll only get more devastating from here.

IGN: We see from Kirk’s monologue in issue #2 that he has all his memories, up to and including his death in Star Trek: Generations. How much is he fueled by his lingering hatred and distrust of the Klingons? How much does he struggle with the question of whether he’s a facsimile of James T. Kirk or the real deal?

Lanzing: It’s his defining struggle. Is this man truly James Kirk? Is he a facsimile? Is he a man given new life or a ghost brought back to haunt his own burning legacy? And are those memories worth anything anymore? In issue #2 and 3, we see the value of his experience as a captain and a warrior against the Klingons - but it involves letting himself fall back into patterns of hatred that he thought he’d overcome. Will that shape a new man from this new Kirk? Or will he find his way back to the legend in this darkest of times?

Kelly: Then of course there’s the biggest question on his mind: why did the Borg bring him back in the first place? Is he a trap for his fellow crewmates? Forget the Burn - is Kirk the sword that will destroy the Federation once and for all?

Superhero workplace comedy game Dispatch has just popped up on the Nintendo eShop for Switch and Switch 2, and is already available to pre-order.

There's been no formal word yet by developer AdHoc Studio, but the Nintendo eShop listing is now live in Australia, where Switch owners can pre-order the game. There's even a release date, too: January 29, 2026.

For Nintendo Switch 2 owners, a free upgrade pack will be available to download separately, providing a version of the game with enhanced resolution and improved frame rates. As of yet, there's no sign of the game arriving on Xbox — though we'll update this article again when AdHoc makes any formal announcement.

Dispatch first launched back in October for PC and PlayStation 5, where it quickly won over a legion of fans for its quirky, episodic storytelling, and shifted 2 million copies over its first month on sale — something its team had projected the game would reach after two years.

The game features an ensemble cast of heroes voiced by some famous faces, including Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, and Matthew Mercer, while its development team features key personel from Telltale Games' heyday, who previously worked on The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands.

"Dispatch is a sharp-witted workplace comedy that charms with its smart dialogue choices, great writing, and lovably aggravating cast," IGN wrote in our Dispatch review, scoring the game with a super 9/10.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social