Unsurprisingly, the return of the Fallout TV series has once again reignited interest in the games, with a surge in players across the board.
Fallout Season 2 is well underway, and given that Lucy and The Ghoul are out exploring the wasteland again (I think; I only just finished season 1), it's only natural that fans of the TV show will either be reminded about how much they love the games or get the itch to explore the games. We saw this back in 2024 when season 1 released, and it looks like the Amazon Prime series has once again done its job, as from a glance at SteamDB (spotted by PC Gamer), you can see its impact.
Obviously, Fallout: New Vegas has received a pretty big bump – from a peak of 8,317 players in November and has peaked at 19,216 during the new season – which makes sense given that this season is based around the locale featured in Obsidian Entertainment's classic RPG (plus there's the fact that it's the best Fallout game).
However, New Vegas can't quite beat out the more accessible – in the sense of it being easier and also working without spending two hours configuring mods – Fallout 4. The latest mainline entry in the series jumped from a 25,238 peak in November, with January's peak currently sitting at 44,273. Even the controversial Fallout 76 has seen a significant bump from 14,628 in November to 29,264. These games are both readily available on both PlayStation and Xbox too, so it'd be a safe bet to assume they are the real winners of this popularity bump.
This has been across the board too; while not as monumental as the others, Fallout 1, 2, 3, and even spinoffs like Fallout Tactics and Shelter have all had boosts on Steam. I personally picked up Fallout 1 and New Vegas over the holidays, so I'm not immune, and it seems everyone else wasn't either.
Todd Howard says Obsidian was "the only choice" for Fallout: New Vegas.
