It is being described as a massive triumph for television. Fallout is a rare series that has made a seamless transition from video game to small screen, giving fans of the game — and even those who are not — a fresh, exciting peek into Bethesda’s popular series of post-apocalyptic RPGs, delivering a masterstroke by telling a new story set in the pantheon of the Fallout universe. Created by Jonathan Nolan and brought to life by an eclectic cast comprising Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Walton Goggins, Fallout is set in a post-apocalyptic world and examines the ever-growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots, which, given the world that we live in, makes it more immediate than dystopian. What makes Fallout a winner is its potent cocktail of tongue-in-cheek humour, sci-fi campiness, strong themes, memorable characters and visceral violence. Its tone — which most video game adaptations struggle to get right — is pitch-perfect. Even as it entertains, it asks some important questions — most specifically, whether our inherent nature and impulses survive or undergo a change when faced with a life-changing situation.
Fallout 4 (left) saw sales in Europe jump by over a whopping 7,500 per cent since the premiere of the Prime Video series
The series, after all, is a survival story. Its origins and central theme align with The Last of Us, another video game adapted under the prestige TV model that asked why we cling to life after experiencing the worst of humanity.
Buoyed by overall positive reviews — The Guardian has succinctly described Fallout as “funny, self-aware and tense — an astonishing balancing act”, the series has proven to be a shot in the arm for Prime Video, which stuck its neck out to bring it to life despite many a hurdle. The numbers speak for themselves. Among streaming original TV series, Fallout spiked to more than 5 million views in its first full week in release. It has clocked an astonishing 2.5 billion minutes watched and while exact viewership numbers haven’t been revealed, Prime Video has confirmed that Fallout is in its Top 3 most-watched series ever and has been the service’s biggest global hit since The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power.
Despite it being a new story in the Fallout universe, Nolan’s idea to feed off and pay tribute to the much-loved video game has paid rich dividends. Fans of Fallout the game have spotted as many 111 video game details in the series, with the TV show emerging as a megaton of Easter eggs and lore-accurate props.
The acclaim for the series has translated into a popularity boost for the game. Fallout 4, which originally released in 2015, saw sales in Europe jump by over a whopping 7,500 per cent since the premiere of the Prime Video series. The nearly 10-year-old game has jumped all the way to the top of the GSD charts, which tracks digital games across all of Europe and physical sales in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It now sits atop the weekly top 10, beating out Helldivers 2, EA Sports FC 24 and Grand Theft Auto 5.All of this has, of course, contributed to Season 2 being commissioned almost as soon as the first season dropped. A true triumph, as they say, for television.
