What you need to know
- In a surprising (and yet not totally surprising) turn of events, Microsoft-owned Fallout 4 has become the best-selling game in Europe.
- Since the release of the Fallout series on Amazon Prime Video, the whole series has seen a resurgence, with Fallout 4 leading the way.
- The majority of sales were on PC, also helped by hefty discounts, but console sales have also been going well despite being on Game Pass and Sony's own subscription service.
- The current-gen upgrade for Fallout 4 is due on April 25.
Just how much has the Fallout mania taken hold? Well, we know that Fallout season one on Prime Video has been an absolute smash, and we know that player counts across the entire franchise have spiked since its release.
But, in Europe, at least, we have some actual hard numbers on just how well Fallout has done this past week. The numbers from GSD, reported by GamesIndustry.biz, show that the almost nine-year-old Fallout 4, the latest "mainline" release in the series, is currently the best-selling game in Europe.
With an insane 7,500% increase in the past week, Fallout 4 has outsold the current darling, Helldivers 2, EA FC 24, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and fellow elder statesman, GTA V.
Simply incredible.
The data covers digital and physical sales, and of that massive increase, 69% were recorded on PC. Despite being available in both Xbox Game Pass and Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription services, a 31% share for console is impressive.
Fallout 4 isn't the only game from the beloved franchise seeing success, though. The lower reaches of the top 10 see three more titles making the list, with Fallout 76, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 rounding out the last three spots, all seeing their own gains. Fallout 76 is more heavily skewed towards PC, with an 85% share of all sales. Don't forget, though, if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can get yourself a copy of Fallout 76 completely free right now.
A well received show paired with hefty discounts = WIN
To say the Fallout TV show has been a success would be massively underselling it. Amazon has already renewed it for a second season (and we hope for many more beyond that), at the same time as confirming it as one of its top three most watched original shows. The reception has been simply extraordinary.
Not without reason, too. I'm not a huge Fallout player, though I have dabbled in a few of them, but I'm one of the many that's diving back in. The lore and the world created in the games lends itself superbly well to creating a live-action TV show. That the series fits in with the canon of the games while telling an entirely new story is the icing on the cake.
Heavy discounts on the entire franchise also doesn't hurt. All the Fallout games right now are incredibly cheap, and I guess it's easier to do when there hasn't been a new release in the franchise in some years. That's not forgetting that Game Pass subscribers on PC and Xbox already have access to every game.
It's going to be a while before we get Fallout season two, and even longer before we get Fallout 5. But at least in the meantime, fans new and old have a ridiculous amount of content to play through.
