With the recent release of the Prime series Fallout, the game series upon which its based has seen a huge upsurge in players. All of the games in the series, from the original top-down Fallout to MMORPG Fallout 76 to the mobile title Fallout Shelter, have reportedly gotten thousands of new players interested in breaking free from the Vaults themselves. How did developer Bethesda Game Studios handle this? According to Jonathan Rush, creative director at Bethesda Game Studios, the team prepared for it well in advance.
GamesBeat spoke with Rush about whether the developers anticipated the influx of players and how they prepared for them. According to Rush, Bethesda wanted to make the games as easy to access as possible: “We knew viewers would want more Fallout after experiencing the awesome new story from the series. To make it easier for prospective players to hop into any of the Fallout games we offered free trial periods and they’re essentially all available on Xbox Game Pass.”
Rush added that the team had Fallout 76 in particular received several updates: “Specific to Fallout 76, over the past year there have been several updates that made their way into the game to support the influx of new Vault Dwellers, which included improved performance for Xbox Series S/X and PS5 players, a new Season format which lets players choose their own path through the rewards, and an assortment of assets tied directly to the show that would be available for players once the show went live. Everything was aligned to give our new and existing players the best play experience possible.”
The developers collaborated with the creators of the show to offer in-game items from the show. “From the start, our team’s relationship with Kilter Films and Amazon Prime Video was collaborative and supportive. We were all working together to ensure the quality of cross promotions and any in-game related content to the show itself, like Fallout Shelter offering new characters (like the Ghoul) to Fallout 76 offering things like the iconic Vault 33 jumpsuit to Lucy’s backpack, was how we all envisioned it. We couldn’t be happier with how everything has come together and how it’s been received by everyone.”
Escaping the Vaults en masse
There’s no official word from Bethesda on exactly how many players have joined the irradiated hellscape that is the Fallout games’ setting, but they have given some clues. The official Fallout X account recently revealed that over 1 million players were in Fallout 76 in a single day, with five million total across the entire Fallout series. Bethesda Game Studios also acknowledged the new players on X, saying, “Welcome! We’re happy to have you join the best community there is.”
Third-party sites like SteamDB have also helped paint the picture of surging popularity. According to IGN, Fallout 76, Fallout 4 and Fallout New Vegas (which was developed by Obsidian rather than Bethesda) collectively doubled their concurrent player count. Polygon similarly reported that Fallout and Fallout 3 saw player count jumps of 553.3% and 415.4% from last month, respectively. According to SteamDB, at time of writing, Fallout 2 had its all-time concurrent player peak — 2,194 — earlier this week on the platform. Gamesindustry.biz reports that Fallout Shelter’s daily revenue shot from $20,000 to $80,000 after the show’s launch.
“We are seeing more people playing Fallout 76 than we ever have, and a lot of those people are new players, as well as players returning to the game that may have been away for a bit. It’s so amazing to see the franchise break records and receive all this love,” said Rush. “Playing Fallout 76 personally, the community feels more alive than ever before and it’s more than welcoming of new players who want a multiplayer Fallout experience, or whether they want to explore the wasteland alone.”
Rush said that the developers care about appealing to the Prime viewers, but that the games speak for themselves. “New players jumping into the Fallout games that have seen the show find that they are experiencing and even telling brand new wasteland stories of their own. I think the show-related content was a great way to make it easier for new players to hop in. However, the vast worlds, rich storytelling, and unique experiences are what will ultimately keep these new players engaged and add them to our huge base of existing fans.”