The DeanBeat: Fallout Shelter is a rare free-to-play hardcore mobile gaming hit

Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout Shelter is one of the rare hardcore gaming hits on mobile devices. The post-apocalyptic game scored huge publicity when Bethesda announced its availability during its Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) event in June. Bethesda told fans they had to wait for the Fallout 4 console game until this fall, but the post-apocalyptic mobile game was available to sate the franchise’s fans immediately. The result was a downloading frenzy.

The title is still doing good on the mobile charts, and that’s why it’s worth a deeper look. I’m still waiting for my interview with the developers and publishers. But in the meantime, I’ve got own observations about this title, which I’ve been playing religiously for a few weeks. In fact, I stopped playing five other mobile games because I was so enthralled with Fallout Shelter. Dissecting why this game took off on mobile when so many other hardcore titles have failed yields a lot of lessons for those in the $30 billion mobile industry.