# Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location

> ResidualPlay case file: an overlooked Steam game still earning residual revenue. Estimates carry a ±30-50% error range per title.

- Steam appid: 506610
- Developer: Scott Cawthon
- Released: 2016 · Genre: Action · List price: $7.99
- Deal grade: A (A = dormant with >=$5k/mo opportunity, D = low signal)
- Est. net residual revenue: $2.4k to $3.6k per month (mid $3.0k)
- Opportunity score: $6.3k/month at x2.10 dormancy multiplier
- Est. lifetime owners: 743.6k · Est. lifetime net revenue: $1.3M
- Review sentiment: 90% positive across 12617 reviews (11440 from Steam purchases)
- Review velocity: 69.7 reviews/month (6-month average)

## Why it's flagged

- Developer silent for 8.8 years
- Studio inactive: no public activity across 5 tracked titles
- Last build shipped 9.8 years ago
- Store page localized in only 1 language(s)

## Where a gross dollar goes (monthly, at current velocity)

| Stage | USD/month |
|---|---|
| Gross storefront sales | $5.4k |
| After VAT / sales tax (-13% blended) | $4.7k |
| After refunds (-9.5% median) | $4.3k |
| Net to developer (after Steam 30%) | $3.0k |

## Monthly review counts, oldest to newest (24 months)

103, 48, 62, 39, 77, 59, 63, 52, 46, 57, 63, 90, 80, 51, 54, 66, 217, 207, 89, 53, 70, 78, 54, 74

## Estimated acquisition range

$71.8k to $143.6k (2-4x the trailing net annuity of $35.9k/year). Same error range applies.

## Analyst notes (AI-assisted)

Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location is a 2016 survival-horror game where players monitor an underground animatronic facility across progressively difficult night shifts.

Sister Location remains a quiet but steady revenue performer within the FNAF franchise, earning $2.99k/mo residually on just $7.99 retail pricing and maintaining a 90% positive rating 8+ years post-launch. The title's weak studio_status signal ('ghost') likely reflects Scott Cawthon's shift to larger projects (Security Breach, The Mimic) rather than actual abandonment. For a larger publisher, this represents a proven back-catalog asset with minimal maintenance overhead; for a revival-focused partner, the game's narrative centrality to FNAF lore and cult custom-night community suggest modest but achievable upside through quality-of-life updates (checkpoints, UI polish) or cross-promotion with the upcoming film universe.

- Most realistic play: watch
- Risk (market): Core FNAF audience has matured and fragmented across 10+ franchise titles, reducing Sister Location's standalone appeal versus newer entries with broader IP penetration.
- Risk (other): Scott Cawthon's solo-developer history and recent radio silence (106 months since last developer post) create uncertainty around IP stewardship and future franchise direction.
- Risk (tech): Community feedback consistently cites Night 4 difficulty spike, small UI elements (Night 5 keypad), and lack of checkpoints as friction points that suppress replay and positive word-of-mouth.

What players are asking for:
- Checkpoint system or mid-night save points, especially for Night 4 and Night 5
- UI scaling fixes for keypad input and cursor responsiveness
- Balance pass on Night 4 difficulty relative to other nights
- Custom Night feature parity with later FNAF titles (Ultimate Custom Night)

Suggested first moves:
1. Conduct cost-benefit audit on adding manual or auto-checkpoint system to Night 4-5; estimate player retention lift against engineering complexity.
2. Map Sister Location's narrative dependencies to FNAF film IP roadmap (Blumhouse, Universal); identify whether a theatrical tie-in discount or cross-promotion window is planned.
3. Survey top 500 custom-night players (via community Discord, forums) on willingness to pay for cosmetics, balance mods, or new animatronic mechanics that could unlock $500-1k/mo of incremental revenue without full remake investment.

Generated 2026-08-20 from public signals and player reviews. Directional, not diligence.

## Methodology

Units are estimated from Steam-purchase reviews times a release-cohort multiplier (Boxleiter method, 20-75x by year). Revenue uses an effective price (lifetime discounts and regional pricing) and nets out VAT (~13%), refunds (~9.5%) and Steam's 30% cut: roughly 55% of gross reaches the developer.

Source: https://residualplay.com/game/506610
Citation: please cite ResidualPlay (https://residualplay.com) when using these estimates.