The Fallout TV show’s popularity has blown up Nexus Mods as everyone rushes to play Fallout 4 again

23.04.2024 - 08:49 / rockpapershotgun.com / Bethesda Softworks

The Fallout TV show effect continues. This time, it’s popular mod site Nexus Mods on the receiving end of the double-edged Shishkebab, as its servers struggle under the weight of people rushing to play through the series again - and mod its latter entries into games worth playing, presumably.

Okay, maybe that’s a tad harsh on Fallout 4, but nevertheless, Nexus Mods issued a warning that “extra traffic could cause a degraded experience across the website and our applications” in the last few days, attributing the issue directly to the website “experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV series”.

Despite deploying extra resources across their network since the problem first arose last Friday - I’m guessing as people clocked off from work and went to boot up the series for the weekend - the issues apparently still remain as of the latest update earlier today.

The positive reception to Amazon’s Fallout series - which adapts the long-running post-apocalyptic RPG games into a new story set within the same canon and continuity - has translated into bonanza success for developers Bethesda, as the likes of Fallout 4, New Vegas and even divisive MMO Fallout 76 have seen their player counts leap since the show’s premiere a couple of weeks ago. Earlier modern-era entry Fallout 3 and the ‘90s CRPG originals have also picked up in the wake of the excitement, too.

Latest mainline single-player entry Fallout 4 has particularly proven popular, helped by the timing of Bethesda announcing they would finally release the long-awaited next-gen update for the nearly decade-old game - which is due out later this week, and may presumably cause those numbers to go stratospheric again.

Look, I’ll cop to being one of those people, having finally decided to give Fallout 4 another shot after it left me fairly disappointed on release back in 2015. I’m still not quite won over by its added settlement management mechanics and change in writing tone and conversations from the heights of New Vegas, honestly, but it has been nice to have the excuse to return to the Fallout world in general, which I continue to enjoy quite a bit.

It seems that the revived love of Fallout will continue for a good while yet, thanks to that next-gen update for Fallout 4, the massive Fallout: London mod - currently delayed due to said next-gen update - and the fact that the TV series will get a second season at some point, potentially with added deathclaws. After a number of years with not much to be excited about if you’re not that fussed by Fallout 76 expansions, it feels like a good time to be a Fallout fan again.