Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platform horror franchise created by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, set in surreal nightmarish environments where small child protagonists must navigate deadly worlds populated by grotesque, oversized adult figures. The original game released April 28, 2017, and the franchise has sold over twenty million copies across three mainline entries as of June 2025. Little Nightmares III, developed by Supermassive Games following Tarsier’s departure from the series, released October 10, 2025, as the franchise’s first entry with online cooperative play. A Secrets of the Spiral downloadable content pack for Little Nightmares III is in development for 2026.

Little Nightmares (2017)

Little Nightmares released April 28, 2017, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, developed by Tarsier Studios in Malmö, Sweden, and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game follows Six, a nine-year-old girl in a yellow raincoat, awakening inside the Maw, a massive underwater iron vessel that functions as a dining establishment for wealthy monstrous guests fed by the corrupted children and workers trapped within. Six must navigate the Maw from its lowest depths to its highest decks using her small size to hide in vents and under furniture, her lighter as the only source of comfort in the darkness, and her wits against enemies including the elongated-armed Janitor and the enormous Twin Chefs. The game’s wordless storytelling and the specific horror of its child-through-a-dark-adult-world perspective drew immediate critical and audience attention on release. A Nintendo Switch version followed May 18, 2018. Three downloadable content packs under the collective title Secrets of the Maw expanded the game’s lore through the perspective of a small hooded figure called the Runaway Kid. An Enhanced Edition for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Nintendo Switch 2 released October 10, 2025.

Very Little Nightmares (2019)

Very Little Nightmares released in 2019 as a mobile prequel developed by Alike Studios for iOS and Android, published by Bandai Namco. The mobile entry told a story set before the original game’s events in a different location, following a girl in a yellow raincoat through an escape from the Nest, a building managed by the Craftsman. The mobile format and different developer made it a complementary entry rather than a direct continuation, expanding the franchise’s world without advancing its central narrative.

Little Nightmares II (2021)

Little Nightmares II released February 11, 2021, for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows, and Google Stadia, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S versions following August 25, 2021. The sequel introduced Mono, a boy wearing a paper bag over his head, as the primary protagonist, accompanied by Six from the original game as a companion whose relationship with Mono drives the story’s emotional and narrative arc. The game is set in a TV-obsessed city called the Pale City, where the transmission from a distant Signal Tower has corrupted the population into pale, shambling figures, with the Maw visible in the distance as a reminder of the first game’s world. Little Nightmares II expanded the environmental variety and puzzle complexity relative to the original and deepened the franchise’s lore through its ending, which recontextualized Six’s motivations in ways that extended back into the first game’s events. The game was Tarsier Studios’ final entry in the franchise following their statement in 2021 that they would not continue with the series.

Tarsier’s Departure and Supermassive Takes Over

Tarsier Studios announced following Little Nightmares II’s release that they would be stepping away from the franchise they had created. Bandai Namco Entertainment, which holds the intellectual property rights to Little Nightmares, confirmed the series would continue and announced Little Nightmares III at Gamescom in August 2023, with Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn and the Dark Pictures Anthology, as the new developer. Tarsier moved to develop Reanimal, a co-operative horror game described as a spiritual successor to the Little Nightmares formula, which released February 13, 2026. Tarsier co-founder Andreas Johnsson described the decision to leave the franchise as connected to the studio’s desire to fully own the intellectual property of its next project rather than develop within a publisher-owned universe.

Little Nightmares III (2025)

Little Nightmares III released October 10, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC, developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game introduced two new protagonists, Low and Alone, navigating a new location called the Nowhere across the franchise’s first online cooperative mode, with one player controlling each character simultaneously or solo players switching between them. The Counties setting expanded the franchise’s geography beyond the Maw and the Pale City into new environments built around the same atmosphere of outsized adult menace and child vulnerability. Bandai Namco has a Secrets of the Spiral downloadable content pack in development for 2026.

Little Nightmares Beyond Games

The franchise has expanded across multiple other media. Very Little Nightmares in 2019 was the first mobile entry. Three comic series have extended the lore, with a four-issue series running between late 2025 and early 2026 following a child in a frozen prison within the Nowhere and a detective searching for vanished children. The Sounds of Nightmares, an audio drama series, released in 2023. Little Nightmares: The Lonely Ones, a young adult novel, published in 2025. Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes, a virtual reality game, released in 2026. A television series was announced and subsequently cancelled during the franchise’s earlier expansion period.