Fallout on Prime Video Sends Players Back to the Wasteland
The Fallout series on Prime Video is doing more than entertaining viewers. It is sending a huge wave of players back into the classic Fallout games on PC. Just like we saw during the first season, the release of Fallout Season 2 has triggered a major spike in concurrent players on Steam across almost the entire series.
Thanks to data from SteamDB, we can see that this is not just a small bump. Player counts for Fallout 4, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3, Fallout 76, and even the original Fallout have all surged since the new season started airing in December.
For PC gamers this is a great reminder that a strong TV or movie adaptation can breathe new life into older titles and pack fresh activity into games that have been around for years.
Player Numbers Surging Across the Fallout Series
Before Fallout Season 2 started, Fallout 4 was already a popular game on Steam, usually sitting at around 20,000 concurrent players. After the show launched, that number more than doubled, pushing past 40,000 concurrent players. That is a big jump for a single player focused RPG that released back in 2015.
Fallout New Vegas has seen an even more dramatic rise in relative terms. It was averaging around 8,000 concurrent players per day. Since the new season of the show started, that number has climbed to nearly 20,000. For a game released in 2010, that is an impressive comeback and shows how beloved New Vegas still is among PC gamers.
Even the older titles are getting love. Fallout 3 was typically bringing in only around one hundred concurrent players on an average day. After the show hit Prime Video, it rose to almost 200 at peak times. That may not sound huge, but it is still about double its usual daily activity.
The multiplayer focused Fallout 76 has also benefited. It usually sits somewhere in the 10,000 to 20,000 concurrent player range, but since the Season 2 release it has climbed to around 30,000 players. That gives the shared world Fallout experience a noticeable boost in population and makes its world feel busier and more alive.
Even the original Fallout, a true classic from the late 90s, has seen a jump. This game normally draws only a few hundred players, but it has climbed to more than 800 concurrent users. For a game that old, that is significant and shows how new fans of the show are curious about where the franchise started.
Some of this rise can be connected to the Steam Winter Sale. The Fallout games were discounted, which always helps bring players in. However, when you compare them to other RPGs that were also on sale like Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and Skyrim, the Fallout series saw a much sharper and more dramatic increase. That points strongly to the TV series as the real driver.
Fallout Shelter and Steam Deck Join the Action
The Fallout effect is not limited to the mainline RPGs. Fallout Shelter, the free to play vault management game, has seen the biggest spike of all thanks to a smart tie in update. Just before the show began airing in December, Fallout Shelter received new content themed directly around the Prime Video series.
The update added characters Lucy, Maximus, and the Ghoul Goggins to the game. It also introduced a New Vegas themed vault and event. For players, that means you can recruit familiar faces from the show, send them on missions, and build a vault that lines up with the TV universe. This clear connection has drawn in both returning fans and new players who discovered Fallout through Prime Video.
On top of that, a lot of the new and returning Fallout activity is happening on Steam Deck. Fallout 4 in particular is doing very well on Valve's handheld PC. It is currently ranked as the ninth most played game on Steam Deck for the past week and has climbed several places compared to previous weeks.
In December, Fallout 4 jumped six slots in the Steam Deck popularity charts. It has continued to rise as Season 2 progresses. The mix of mod support, single player storytelling, and portable play on Steam Deck makes it a great way to experience the wasteland in 2025.
For PC gamers, this trend highlights a few interesting points:
- Good TV or movie adaptations can massively extend the life of older PC titles.
- Sales events like the Steam Winter Sale help, but strong cross media hype can amplify their impact dramatically.
- Handheld PC gaming through devices like Steam Deck is becoming a serious way people revisit classic games.
With so many players rediscovering Fallout, many fans are now asking the obvious question: when will we see a brand new mainline Fallout game built for modern hardware and current PC performance standards? Bethesda is busy with other large projects, so it may be a long wait. Until then, the existing Fallout games plus mods, updates, and platform improvements are keeping the wasteland busy.
If you are into PC gaming, now is a great time to jump back into Fallout 4 or New Vegas, try Fallout 76 with a livelier player base, or finally check out the original classics on your desktop or Steam Deck.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fallout-season-2-has-doubled-the-number-of-people-playing-the-fallout-games-on-steam/
