Fallout TV show season 2 sparks surge in Fallout game popularity on Steam

Bethesda is reaping the rewards of a potent transmedia effect with another season of the Fallout TV series, which is inspiring viewers to become active participants in the Fallout game world.

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Season 2 of the Fallout TV show is here, and since its premiere, the series has become the #1 most-viewed program on Amazon Prime in the US. All signs show that Bethesda has pulled off a second successful round of the powerful transmedia strategy that it also used for season 1 of the Fallout TV show--a strong plan that led to Xbox games dominating on Sony's home turf of the PlayStation Store for a time.

Fallout games have seen high engagement on Steam since the release of season 2 of the TV series. According to data from SteamDB, games like Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Fallout Shelter all had increases in concurrent players of over +100%. While it's hard to separate sales data from this mix--all of these games are old, and it's possible that a number of these players are simply revisiting the games and didn't actually buy a new copy--we can take a look at the Steam sales charts.

Each game tacked on thousands of players since the Fallout TV show season 2 premiere on December 15, and Fallout 4 in particular saw the largest increase of raw numbers, with concurrents going from 17.5K on the show's launch to roughly 44.2K on January 4. That's a +151% increase in players.

Fallout 4 is also currently #49 out of 100 on Steam's top sellers charts.

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Fallout 4 (#49 on Steam best-sellers)

• Players on Dec 15 - 17,579
• Players on Jan 4 - 44,273
• +151% increase

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Fallout 76 (#9 on Steam best-sellers)

• Players on Dec 15 - 13,989
• Players on Jan 4 - 29,624
• +112% increase

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Fallout New Vegas (not in top 100 Steam best-sellers)

• Players on Dec 15 - 8,139
• Players on Jan 4 - 19,216
• +136% increase

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Fallout Shelter

• Players on Dec 1 - 1,785
• Players on Dec 15 - 4,927
• +176% increase

Fallout 76 also saw a hefty revitalization in its player base on Steam. According to the data, Fallout 76 had roughly 13.9K players when season 2 premiered, and then jumped up to 29.6K players by January 4. That's a +112% increase, and it's also worth noting that Fallout 76 is much higher on the sales charts at #9.

Fallout Shelter isn't incredibly popular on Steam, but it did nonetheless receive a boost in players, going from 1.7K players on December 1 to a hefty peak of 4.9K players (+176%) when the show dropped.

It's unclear how powerful the transmedia effect is on software sales this time around, however current standings show that Fallout 76 is #33 and Fallout 4 is #45 on the PlayStation Store best-sellers, and that's including a steep $4.99 discount for the base version of Fallout 4.

Bethesda had a new premium Fallout release at the ready to coincide with season 2 of the TV show, with the Fallout 4 Anniversary collection, a product that we predicted would be released in order to fully capitalize on the Fallout TV series.

The new Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition is significant because it better transforms the 10-year-old action RPG into a monetized platform that sells player-created mods. Years ago, Bethesda introduced "paid mods" in the form of so-called Creations that were offered in a Creation Club. For a while, the paid mods aka Creations co-existing separately alongside the free console mods that were offered. With modern releases, Bethesda has melded the two together and called them "Creations," perhaps as a way to move away from the controversial paid mods naming convention.

It's further unclear how well these ancillary revenue streams actually work--do players spend money on so-called paid mods?--however their existence alone allows for monetization potential over time.