Fallout draws nearly 5 million players in one day, Bethesda says

According to Bethesda Game Studios, the Fallout gaming franchise has had almost five million active players in a single day across all of its titles.

Fallout 76, the online multiplayer take on the irradiated landscape of Appalachia has recorded fantastic statistics in the wake of the series’ resurgence with one million active players. This is on top of the surge of measurable attention created elsewhere by the Fallout TV show airing on Amazon Prime to critical acclaim, and the recent announcement that a second season is in the works.

Bethesda posted their success to X on Tuesday, adding: “…and almost five million across all Fallout games in a single day!”

Thank you to the over one million of you who adventured with us in #Fallout76 in a single day… pic.twitter.com/rbariEI4q8

— Fallout (@Fallout) April 23, 2024

The Fallout game series stretches back to 1997’s Fallout, published by Interplay, when MS-DOS systems, Windows, and macOSX became the catalysts for future installments.

The franchise has come a long way since then, and the most recent incarnations of the dialogue-driven narrative explorer have become synonymous with consoles.

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, and Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas are especially etched in console gamers’ minds because of their marquee story events, memorable sidequests, and unforgettable characters. Despite their age, these titles retain large player bases, somewhat in part to the large modding culture they support. THe TV show has helped these narrative single-player games get a new lease on an already long life.

On the multiplayer side, Fallout 76 hitting this milestone and attracting these players is no mean feat for a game seen as a roaring dumpster fire at launch almost six years. Early reviews of the mechanics, the private servers costing coins, and the lack of challenging content dismayed players at the time.

However, in recent months, the game has returned to the form expected of a studio like Bethesda. Story-driven narratives and the slight terraformation of the Appalachian map caused players to return and enjoy the slight nods to Fallout games in the past. This new player base is exploring the wasteland to get more context on what makes the show tick.

So it is no wonder that more and more players are emerging from vaults across Fallout 76 and the daily downloads of older installments are increasing. Fallout fever has taken hold and Bethesda couldn’t be happier.

This will be seen as a boon for the gaming studio whose last deep role-playing game, Starfield, flattered to deceive. An Xbox exclusive for its September launch, it’s now earmarked for a port to PlayStation 5 later in 2024.

We recently broke down the best mods for gamers who have wandered the wasteland and are looking for more after watching the Walton Goggins-fueled TV carnage.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios

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