The sound comes from the Five Nights at Freddy's horror game series created by Scott Cawthon, first released in 2014. Players spend the night as a security guard monitoring Freddy Fazbear and the other animatronics through cameras, doors and lights controlled by buttons. Clips of the game's interface sounds spread widely on YouTube and TikTok as the franchise grew, and the button noise became shorthand online for rising tension and an animatronic about to move.