Fallout 76 Reaches Milestone Of 13.5 Million Players

The Fallout series has seen its ups and downs, and while Fallout 76 likely represents one of the lowest points for the brand, it also shows how even the games with the worst reviews can win back fans; the game has now amassed over 13.5 million players.

Fallout 76 was released over four years ago. Over the course of this time, the franchise has undergone a great deal of change, evolving from an isometric single-player game to a live-service first/third-person shooter. 

Major Takeaways:

• Bethesda announced that Fallout 76 has reached a total of 13.5 Million players.
• This figure comes following the most last update, which marked the game’s 13 Million player milestone in October 2022.

The first expansive live game produced by Bethesda Game Studios encountered multiple issues over its prolonged beta phase and initial release. Low game sales served as a manifestation of this. Just 1.4 million copies had been sold as of the start of 2019.

The shaky release and subsequent poor response of Fallout 76 have been well-documented, with issues ranging from the fundamental functionality and performance of servers to the thematic tone of the in-game nukes and even the caliber of merchandising released alongside the game itself. 

Despite all of this, the Bethesda team has managed to keep the game going, and that extra love and care have given the game the bump in popularity it sorely needed. To demonstrate how far the game has progressed, the team recently decided to provide some stats.

The primary figure is that 13.5 million players actively participated in the game in 2022, remember that it is on Game Pass and has been made available for free numerous times.

If you’ve played Fallout 76, you’ll find these stats very amusing, such as the fact that 2.9 million nukes have been dropped and that the thumbs-up is the most used emote. Oh, and most favorite camping region is the forests. “Boiled water” takes the top spot as the most prepared food/drink.

The Fallout franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary back in October. And in its calendar of festivities on Fallout’s website, they announced a free play event for Fallout 76, where they revealed that Fallout 76 had reached 13 million players.

Well with two and a half months in between, another half a million players have interacted with Fallout 76.

These numbers are somewhat surprising given the rocky launch of Fallout 76. The game had numerous bugs and glitches that made it nearly impossible to play. New network problems, frame rate drops across all platforms, and other issues were added to the list.

On PC, the game received a Metacritic score of 52, which is the lowest ever in Bethesda’s history.

The majority of the time, Bethesda’s attempts to address user issues were unsuccessful. The Wastelanders upgrade, which added human NPCs to the world, was also introduced.

But when they gave players items during a special event that weren’t what they had been advertised to be, the game was once more tainted with controversy. Even though the players received refunds, Fallout 76’s reputation did not improve.

Despite this, the game passed the 13.5 million mark for active users. All of this indicates the devoted and sizable fan base the franchise enjoys.

Furthermore, back in September 2021, Bethesda ended up earning more money on Fallout 76 than was invested in its production. However, it did take the company a while to reach this milestone.

Played Fallout 76 yet? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.