Nickelodeon Animation Studio Inc. (also known as Nickelodeon Animation Studios and credited as Nickelodeon Productions on-screen) is an American animation studio owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation through the Nickelodeon Group. It has created many original animated television programs for Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, and Nick Jr., such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Loud House, among various others. Since the 2010s, the studio has also produced its own series based on preexisting IP purchased by Paramount Skydance Corporation, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Winx Club. In November 2019, Nickelodeon Animation Studio signed a multiple-year output deal for Netflix, which will include producing content, in both new and preexisting IP, for the streaming platform, while also doing so for Paramount+.

The studio was founded in 1992 under the name Games Animation Inc. as a subsidiary of a pre-existing company named Games Productions (now known as Nickelodeon Productions). It oversaw the production of three animated programs for Nickelodeon: Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show. In 1992, Nickelodeon began work on Games Animation's first fully in-house series, Rocko's Modern Life. Games Animation produced much of the network's mid-1990s output in partnership with other animation companies like Klasky Csupo. In 1998, the studio moved from Studio City, California to Burbank with the construction of a new facility. It was renamed Nickelodeon Animation Studio and later Nickelodeon Studios Burbank. In 1999, a second facility in New York City was opened, named Nickelodeon Animation Studio New York.

Nickelodeon Animation Studio's beginnings lie in the roots of the channel's Nicktoons endeavor. In 1990, Nickelodeon hired Vanessa Coffey as a creative consultant to develop Nicktoons, providing her with the task of seeking out new characters and stories that would allow the channel a grand entrance into the animation business. The high cost of high-quality animation had discouraged the network from developing weekly animated programming. Although most television networks at the time tended to go to large animation houses with proven track records to develop Saturday-morning series, often generally pre-sold characters from movies, toys or comics, Nickelodeon desired differently. Inspired by the early days of animation and the work of Bob Clampett, Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, Nickelodeon set out to find frustrated cartoonists swallowed up by the studio system. Nickelodeon president Geraldine Laybourne commissioned eight six-minute pilots at a cost of $100,000 each before selecting three. Seeking the most innovative talents in the field, the products of this artists' union – Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show – represented twelve years of budget-building toward that end. Coffey was hired as Nickelodeon's Executive Producer of Animation between the pilots and series production. The Nicktoons were produced by external studios, Jumbo Pictures, Klasky Csupo and Spümcø, with oversight from Nickelodeon. However, this method of production led to both Spümcø and Jumbo Pictures having strained relationships with the network, with only Klasky Csupo retaining a relationship with the network to the present.

In fall 1992, the studio fired John Kricfalusi and Spümcø from The Ren & Stimpy Show. Coffey asserts that John was in breach of contract for not delivering on time, creating disturbing content and going over budget. Kricfalusi suspected the real reason was that the network was uncomfortable with more crude humor. Nickelodeon objected to numerous proposed plotlines and new characters—including George Liquor, an Archie Bunker-ish "All-American Male". After missing several promised new-episode delivery and air dates, Nickelodeon's parent company MTV Networks—which had purchased the rights to the Ren & Stimpy characters from Kricfalusi—negotiated a settlement with him. The creative tug of war was closely watched by both animators and the television industry and covered in the national press.

In response, Nickelodeon moved the series' production to its own studio, Games Animation in 1992, located in an office building in Studio City, California. It is located under Games Productions, the in-name division founded in 1987 to manage Nickelodeon. The series was moved to Games, who hired as much personnel from Spümcø as possible and put under the creative supervision of Bob Camp, one of Kricfalusi's former writer-director partners, in order to continue producing The Ren & Stimpy Show; this period was considered to be a great decline in quality for the series, eventually being cancelled in 1995. Coffey soon stepped down as animation vice president for Nickelodeon, to pursue her own projects. She was replaced by Mary Harrington, a Nickelodeon producer who moved out from New York to help run the Nicktoons division that was a near-shambles after Kricfalusi was fired.

Nickelodeon's plan was to hire bright, young animators and let them do almost anything they want. In 1992, animator Joe Murray was approached by the studio with intentions of developing a new animated series for Nickelodeon. The series became Games Animation's first in-house production, Rocko's Modern Life, which premiered on the network in 1993. Games worked on the show for three years and employed over 70 people during the course of its run. Executives did not share space with the creative team. The show ended in 1996 as its creator Joe Murray wanted to spend more time with his family.

Games Animation also lost Doug from internal conflicts with Jumbo Pictures. After declining to produce the fifth season of the show, MTV Networks sold the intellectual property of the show to The Walt Disney Company in 1994, forcing Games Animation and Ellipse Programme to depart from the show. However, it left Games Animation with guaranteed control over all the shows they would eventually produce aside from Rugrats.

Following the end of Rocko's Modern Life, Games Animation produced the pilots for Hey Arnold!, The Angry Beavers and CatDog, along with the former's first 26 episodes, and the second's first 13 episodes. The latter was produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio along with the other two by this point forward.