Amazon's TV Adaptation of Fallout Took the Game to New Heights of International Fame

Worldwide searches for ‘Fallout 4’ exceeded 9 million in the past month.

‘Fallout 76’ and ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ worldwide monthly searches exceeded 3.3 million and 1.1 million, respectively. ‘Fallout 4 PS5’ searches increased by over 1,100%, with over 200,000 searches in the past month.

A new study has unveiled the extent of the effect that Amazon’s cinematic remake of the post-apocalyptic game series Fallout had on the hype around the original video games.

The study analyzed Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends data to determine which Fallout games have received the most attention since the April 10th release of the eight-part series streaming on Amazon Prime, and just how much of a boost the games have experienced since this release. Analyzed terms included the simple game titles, such as Fallout: New Vegas, as well as combinations of game titles alongside console variations, such as Fallout: New Vegas PlayStation 5.

Fallout 4 is the game that has seen the greatest surge in attention. Analyzed terms relating to this particular Fallout iteration were searched in the US at an average monthly volume of 704,040 over the past 12 months, and globally at a huge volume of 3,039,358. This was the most searched edition in the series of games in all but six countries worldwide. Similarly, within the US, it was the most searched edition in all but four states.

This Google Trends data shows the worldwide spike in searches for the term ‘Fallout 4,’ which saw over 9 million searches in the past month. The spike began in early April, when the Amazon series was released.

Both globally and nationwide, Fallout 76 received the second-highest frequency of searches, and Fallout: New Vegas was third.

In the US alone, searches related to all games in the Fallout franchise totaled over 2.5 million per month, or 765 per 100,000 population. The nations showing the most interest in the games were Norway, Finland, and Iceland, each of which searched the analyzed terms at more than 860 keyword searches per 100,000 population.

Illustrating the interest in playing the game, the spike in searches for the term ‘Fallout 4 PS5’ increased by 1,123% in the past quarter. Again, the timing of the spike shows the surge to be a consequence of the Amazon series.

Comparing searches for the four most searched Fallout games confirms that all of these titles experienced a surge in interest after the Amazon series’ release and that Fallout 4 experienced the greatest boost.

SteamDB data shows how the number of players on Fallout 4 (playing via Steam) rocketed from 24,510 nine days before the show’s release to 187,468 just 12 days after it, an increase of 665%.

A spokesperson for the study said: “Amazon’s cinematic remake of the Fallout games marks an adaptation of a video game into a television series, only really matched by The Last of Us in terms of acclaim and anticipation.”

“In the same way that The Last of Us video games were somewhat revived by the series’ release, Fallout is experiencing an explosion in popularity that is fascinating to see. While this game-to-television phenomenon is fairly novel, it will be interesting to see if streaming companies continue the trend and provide boosts to much-loved games through cinematic reworks.”