It’s not just the mainline games; even free-to-play spin-off Fallout Shelter is enjoying a boost in players and revenue thanks to the TV show, with Bethesda also adding four of the show’s characters to the game.
In case you missed the news, on April 11 (the day after the show debuted on Amazon Prime Video), Bethesda announced a new update for Fallout Shelter based on the TV show. Said update is now live and has added a new questline comprised of eight quests as well as new locations and six unlockable vault dwellers, which includes the three leads: Lucy MacLean, Maximus, and The Ghoul.
While this update exists to attract fans of the Fallout show, Fallout Shelter was already benefiting from said show. Much like the Fallout games on Steam, fans flocked to Fallout Shelter shortly after the show’s release. According to data from mobile analysis firm Sensor Tower (shared by GamesIndustry.biz), daily downloads for Fallout Shelter rose by 20% less than a day after the show aired, and more than tripled by April 13, rising from about 20,000 to 60,000. A lot of money has been spent on the in-game microtransactions in the same amount of time too, with Fallout Shelter‘s daily revenue jumping from $20,000 to a whopping $80,000.
Fallout Shelter had proved financially successful when it launched back in 2015, so this is hardly a major turning point for the game’s lifecycle. However, it does demonstrate the power of cross-promotion and how a successful adaptation can breathe new life into older titles. How long Fallout Shelter will maintain this momentum is anyone’s guess, but Fallout fans will have to make do with games like it and Fallout 76 for the time being, since Fallout 5 is still a very long way away from coming out.
As for the update itself, with TV show characters now in Fallout Shelter, fans can find out what each of their SPECIAL stats are. This can help if you want to recreate, say, Lucy in a game like Fallout 4 and ensure her in-game stats are accurate to how they are in the show. For example, according to Kotaku, Lucy’s best stats are Perception and Luck, with Strength being her worst, which sounds about right based on how things go for her in the show.
