Scott Cawthon’s Net Worth

Scott Braden Cawthon is an American writer and former video game developer with an estimated net worth of $70 million as reported by multiple sources. He is mostly recognized for being the creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s which initially started out as an eponymous survival game horror game in 2014 and has since then cemented itself as a cult classic. Cawthon has since expanded the game into a full-blown media franchise with its own film adaptation as well as novels being released.

Scott Braden Cawthon is an American writer and former video game developer with an estimated net worth of $70 million as reported by multiple sources. He is mostly recognized for being the creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s which initially started out as an eponymous survival game horror game in 2014 and has since then cemented itself as a cult classic. Cawthon has since expanded the game into a full-blown media franchise with its own film adaptation as well as novels being released.

Unlike all the other entrants on this list, Cawthon started his career in the 1990s as an animator and game designer as revealed by him on a live stream with Dawko. He stated that his first game ever made was titled Doofa and was made by him when he was just a child. Cawthon’s first official game, RPG Max, was released in the early 2000s and subsequently, he joined Hope Animation and created several Christian media animations, as he himself is a devout Christian.

Cawthon uploaded the first video from his eight-part series based on John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress to his YouTube channel on March 19, 2007, which was released as a full feature film a couple of years before he uploaded the first part.

Following his animation stint, Cawthon decided to focus on developing video games and eventually submitted numerous video games, namely Sit N' Survive, Chipper and Sons Lumber Co., and The Desolate Hope to Steam Greenlight, the largest distribution platform in the PC gaming industry.

Every game apart from Desolate Hope was criticized for characters having animatronic movements and Cawthon eventually decided to use these very animatronic movements to create the now-famous Five Night at Freddy’s, which he submitted to Steam. This time around, everybody loved the game, and it was hugely adopted by streamers across the world.

The game was eventually released on Steam priced at $7.99 on November 10, 2014, and was extremely well received due to the unique nature of being a horror game which involved creepy animatronic characters. The success of the original game led to Cawthon releasing nine more installments, with three installments being released in the span of a year. With minor updates to certain aspects of the game, he released the other installments between 2016 and early 2021. All the installments enjoyed the same success and popularity as the original game.

On June 16, 2020, Scott Cawthon announced via his website that he was retiring from the world of game development as he desired to spend more time with his children. Apart from developing Five Nights at Freddy’s, Cawthon has also written 25 books inspired by the game, the first of which was released in 2015 under the title, Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes.

The Hollywood Reporter stated in an article dated 2015, that Warner Bros. was interested in making a film adaption of the horror games. After years of failing at coming up with a screenplay, Cawthon on a Reddit thread stated that the film was finally going to start filming in Spring 2021.

Sources of Income

As of 2023, Cawthon has accrued a massive net worth of $70 million and most of it was thanks to the massive success of the Five Night at Freddy’s franchise.

Business Ventures:

Multiple sources report Cawthon has earned millions from in-game sales of the game from PC, Xbox, Playstation, and App Stores. Sources also suggest that Cawthon has earned over $20 million from sales alone.

Apart from the hugely successful video game series, Five Night at Freddy’s now also has its own line of merchandise, hoodies, beanies, and T-shirts, among other miscellaneous items. With over 25 published books, Cawthon also makes quite a decent amount from his writing career, and with the film adaptation finally having some progress, we can only expect Cawthon’s net worth to skyrocket.