Hitman is a stealth game franchise created by Danish developer IO Interactive. The player controls the contract killer Agent 47, who travels the world to assassinate various targets who are assigned to him.
The first game in the franchise, Hitman: Codename 47, was published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows in 2000 and introduced many of the gameplay elements that would become staples of the franchise. Eidos published the next three games, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), Hitman: Contracts (2004), and Hitman: Blood Money (2006), for Windows and consoles, each building upon Codename 47's foundation of stealth gameplay. After a six-year hiatus, Hitman: Absolution (2012) was published, and a high-definition port of the original three console games in 2013, both by Square Enix.
After another hiatus from the main series, the next game titled Hitman (2016) was released, also published by Square Enix. The second game was a direct sequel titled Hitman 2 (2018), published by Warner Bros. Games. They published an HD port of Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Absolution (2019). The most recent main series game, Hitman 3 (2021), was self-published by IO Interactive. In 2023, IO rebranded Hitman 3 as Hitman: World of Assassination, which imported all content of the previous two titles to the game. Feral Interactive published Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal the following year (2023).
Mainline games in the Hitman series have been generally well-received, with most critics praising the take on stealth gameplay and freedom of approach. Outside of the eight mainline releases, the franchise includes three spin-off games, two novels, remastered and HD rereleases of games, and a comic book miniseries, and two film adaptations: Hitman (2007) and Hitman: Agent 47 (2015).