Fallout Games In Order

Ever since the release of the first Fallout game in 1997, the post-apocalyptic RPG series has continued to hook players with its extensive lore spanning hundreds of years.

If you’ve ever wondered how the franchise got its start or the latest Fallout game you can play today, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this list, we’ll explore all of the Fallout games in order, including the main series, spin-offs, and expansions released throughout the years.

Last but not least, we’ll be updating this list in the event Bethesda announces Fallout 5 or any other Fallout spin-offs, so make sure to check back!

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Main Series

The series starts with the original Fallout, released in 1997 for PC and Mac as a spiritual successor to the 1988 role-playing game Wasteland.

It sets up most of the Fallout lore we know today as well as the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skill progression system which stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck.

This granted players the freedom to develop distinct characters by investing in certain stats and making choices throughout the story.

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Set in the year 2161 in a post-apocalyptic Southern California, the game tasks players with locating a water chip to replace the one in Vault 13 while encountering various obstacles and NPCs along the way.

Though it failed to meet sales expectations, Fallout ended up becoming a commercial success and was met with favorable reviews by critics.  

Taking place 80 years after the first game, Fallout 2 casts players as the Chosen One, a descendant of an ancient hero who was eventually exiled from their community.

The story sees you leaving your home in search of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, or G.E.C.K., a device with the power to prevent drought and famine.

Fallout 2 features an updated game engine as well as a large number of references and nods to pop culture throughout its dialogue and writing.

Players can equip up to 18 different skills, including four passive, six combat, and eight active skills ranked from 0-300%.

The game became a commercial success and was well-received by critics praising its gameplay design and captivating story.

Fallout 3 marks a significant shift in the series as ownership transferred to Bethesda after acquiring the rights to the franchise from Interplay, the original creators of Fallout.

For the first time, a mainline Fallout game would release on major consoles in addition to PC.

In it, players take on the role of a vault dweller belonging to Vault 101 as he ventures out into the Capital Wasteland on the dawn of his 19^th birthday.

The game is set during the year 2277, 36 years after Fallout 2, and sees the protagonist searching for his father after he disappears from Vault 101 under mysterious circumstances.

Upon release, Fallout 3 was met with stellar reviews celebrating its open-ended gameplay, flexible leveling progression, and the new V.A.T.S combat system.

Fallout 4 takes place in 2288, ten years after the events of Fallout 3 and 210 years after the Great War.

Players are cast as the Sole Survivor, a vault dweller belonging to Vault 111 who’s been in long-term cryogenic stasis after witnessing their son’s kidnapping and spouse’s murder.

Upon emerging from Vault 111, the Sole Survivor sets off across the Commonwealth Wasteland searching for their lost child and encounters various NPCs and obstacles along the way.

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The game introduces several refinements over Fallout 3, including expanded dialog with over 111,000 recorded lines, new crafting, base-building and layered armor systems, and modding support.

Following its release, Fallout 4 was met with generally favorable reviews praising its wealth of content, player freedom, and creation tools, as well as some criticisms directed at its obtuse dialogue system.

Spin-Offs

The franchise received its first spin-off game with Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, a squad-based strategy game developed by Micro Forté and published by Interplay.

The plot takes place in the American Midwest and sees you playing as a new initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel as they attempt to defend a growing civilization from a host of mutated creatures.

Gameplay features fewer role-playing elements and a greater emphasis on tactical, near real-time combat, referred to as “continuous turn-based” by the game’s developer.

Aside from the main character being human, players can recruit and encounter Ghouls, Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Dogs, and Humanoid Robots throughout single-player and multiplayer matches.

Fallout Tactics was lauded by critics and series’ fans, particularly for its upgraded combat system compared to previous titles.

Not to be confused with similarly titled Tactics spin-off, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is an action RPG developed by Interplay and the first Fallout release made specifically for video game consoles.

In it, players take on the role of a Brotherhood of Steel initiate as they carry out a rescue mission for a squad of missing Paladins.

Throughout the game, players battle various armed Raiders, Bandits, Kamikaze Ghouls, Super Mutants, and Radscorpions.

Brotherhood of Steel revisits the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute system with some minor changes that make it so stat values are constant and non-customizable, unlike previous Fallout games.

Upon launch, the game was met with mixed reviews, particularly for its excessive use of profanity throughout its writing as well as repetitive gameplay.

Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, Fallout: New Vegas transports players to a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas ravaged by years of nuclear war.

Players are cast as the Courier, a mysterious stranger tasked with delivering a package across the Mojave Wasteland to the owner of New Vegas, Mr. House.

In the background, a war is brewing between the New California Republic and local tribes such as Caesar’s Legionnaires and the Great Khans, with the player caught in the middle.

Gameplay centers on real-time combat, RPG leveling, and non-linear progression in which players can venture off the main path to complete various side quests from a host of eccentric NPCs.

Following its release, Fallout: New Vegas was met with generally positive reviews celebrating its gameplay improvements and expanded content, namely in comparison to Fallout 3.

The next spin-off was developed internally by Bethesda and follows the format of a base-building survival game set within the Fallout universe.  

Fallout Shelter sees players taking on the role of Vault Overseer, the authority in charge of designing nuclear fallout shelters, maintaining its utilities, and attracting and caring for survivors.

Once recruited, survivors can be customized with unique names, equipment, and roles depending on their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes as well as produce offspring when placed with a suitable mate.

Players can arm survivors with weapons and send them out into the Wasteland to gather resources and level up and during certain points, defend the Vault from enemy raids.

Fallout Shelter received fairly mixed reviews, with some praising its gameplay loop and others criticizing its overall lack of depth.

Fallout 76 is the most recent release in the series and is considered a spin-off by Bethesda due to its multiplayer-driven design and lack of a traditional story campaign.

In it, players are cast as survivors emerging from Vaults in the Appalachian Wasteland of West Virginia before setting off on a mission to rebuild civilization.

It features an open world four times the size of Fallout 4, providing ample room for players to set up personalized bases dubbed C.A.M.P.s and interact with other players within the same server.

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Fallout 76 features a revised S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute system and was initially lacking any human NPCs, though later updates addressed this following concerns from players.

By now, the game’s controversial positioning within the series has been well-documented, with Fallout 76 receiving mixed to negative reviews citing a host of technical issues, particularly at launch.

Expansions

• Operation: Anchorage – Story expansion that sees players commanding a strike team against Chinese Communist invaders; introduces new weapons, armor, and other items.
• The Pitt – DLC expansion that sees players exploring the post-apocalyptic ruins of Pittsburgh, PA with new quests, NPCs, enemies, and weapons.
• Broken Steel – An expansion that sees players working with the Brotherhood of Steel to eradicate the Enclave threat; includes new weapons, enemy types, perks, and level cap.
• Point Lookout – Story expansion that transports players to the strange seaside town of Point Lookout with a new questline, mysteries, and weapons.
• Mothership Zeta – DLC expansion that sees players trying to take over and escape an alien ship while harnessing its technology complete with new weapons and armor.

• Dead Money – An expansion in which players must work alongside three other captured Wastelanders to recover the legendary treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino.
• Honest Hearts – Story expansion in which players’ caravan is ambushed by a tribal raiding band while traveling through the Zion Canyon; introduces new enemies, perks, and weapons.
• Old World Blues – DLC expansion that transports players to the Big MT research crater teeming with enemies, a new home base, and various Pre-War era weapons, armor, and tech.
• Lonesome Road – Story expansion in which players are contacted by the original Courier Six and travel to the Divide to combat new enemies and unlock new weapons, perks, and recipes.
• Gun Runners’ Arsenal – An expansion that introduces a host of new elite class weapons, weapon mods, ammo types, and recipes that require the player to trek across the Mojave Wasteland.
• Courier’s Stash – DLC expansion that includes four pre-order exclusive content bundles (The Caravan Pack, Classic Pack, Mercenary Pack, and Tribal Pack) adding new weapons, armor, etc.

• Automatron – DLC expansion that tasks players with hunting down evil robots and harvesting their parts to build custom companions using hundreds of combinable mods.
• Wasteland Workshop – An expansion that introduces a suite of new design options for settlements such as nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy, and more.
• Far Harbor – Story expansion centered on Valentine’s Detective Agency that leads players off the coast of Maine to a mysterious island in search of a young woman and secret colony.
• Contraptions Workshop – DLC expansion focused on base-building that introduces new features such as conveyor belts, elevators, fireworks, armor racks, scaffolding, tracks, and logic gates.
• Vault-Tec Workshop – Another base-building DLC that tasks players with creating underground Vaults using pre-war industrial kits complete with retro furniture, lighting, and art.
• Nuka-World – An expansion that transports players to a vast amusement park turned lawless city; features new questlines, enemies, weapons, and more.

• Wild Appalachia – First major update for Fallout 76; added a series of new features such as brewing and distilling as well as new quests/seasonal events, Survival Mode, and more.
• Nuclear Winter – Second major update that introduced a 52-player battle royale mode and endgame team dungeons; considered defunct as of late 2021.
• Wastelanders – Third major update that significantly changes the wasteland by adding living human NPCs to Appalachia along with a slew of new quest lines.
• The Legendary Run – The fourth major update for Fallout 76, it introduced Seasonal progression via a battle pass as well as new legendary perks and several other features.
• One Wasteland For All – Fifth major update that focused on gameplay balancing across all areas along with adding new legendary perks and Daily Ops features.
• Steel Dawn – Sixth substantial update to include a new storyline in which the Brotherhood of Steel returns to Appalachia, offering new quest lines and game mechanics.
• Locked & Loaded – The seventh major update, it featured improvements to the C.A.M.P. and Shelter system as well as new S.P.E.C.I.A.L. loadouts, Daily Ops, and more.
• Steel Reign – Eighth update that serves as the conclusion to Steel Dawn’s Brotherhood of Steel storyline while introducing new craftable legendary power armor and other items.
• Fallout Worlds – The ninth major update for Fallout 76, it features Private World customization, new Daily Ops, Season, and Vault 51 Adventure Mode while removing Nuclear Winter mode.
• Night of the Moth – Major update that introduces The Mothman Equinox seasonal event and quality of life improvements like Pip-boy color settings, legendary loot sharing, and area looting.
• Tales from the Stars – Substantial Fallout 76 update that adds the Invaders from Beyond seasonal event along with 4-star legendary effects and new C.A.M.P. pets.
• Expeditions: The Pitt – Update for Fallout 76 that sees players traveling to the ruins of the former city of Pittsburgh, PA to confront a host of mutated monsters and other threats.