Fallout is one of the easier big series to get into, because you don't need to play it in order. Every game has a new protagonist, a new part of the United States and a story that explains itself. What the games share is a setting: an America that kept its 1950s optimism and its atomic gadgets until the bombs fell on October 23, 2077.
The short answer on where to start: Fallout 4 if you want the most modern game on the most platforms, or Fallout: New Vegas if story and choices matter most to you. If you came from the TV show, start with New Vegas, since the second season is set there. Release order and timeline order are both below.
Fallout games in order of release
These are the mainline games and the spin-offs people ask about.
| Game | Released | Developer | Where to play it in late 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fallout | 1997 | Interplay | PC |
| Fallout 2 | 1998 | Black Isle Studios | PC |
| Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (spin-off) | 2001 | Micro Forté | PC |
| Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (spin-off) | 2004 | Interplay | PS2 and original Xbox only |
| Fallout 3 | 2008 | Bethesda Game Studios | PC; Xbox via backward compatibility |
| Fallout: New Vegas | 2010 | Obsidian Entertainment | PC; Xbox via backward compatibility |
| Fallout Shelter (spin-off) | 2015 | Bethesda Game Studios | iOS, Android, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch |
| Fallout 4 | 2015 | Bethesda Game Studios | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, PC |
| Fallout 76 | 2018 | Bethesda Game Studios | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC |
The series has two eras. The first two games are isometric, turn-based PC role-playing games from the late 1990s. Bethesda bought the series and relaunched it in 2008 with Fallout 3, a first-person open-world game, and every main entry since has followed that template.
On Steam, Fallout, Fallout 2 and New Vegas list at $9.99 each, and Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout 4 at $19.99, at US prices in November 2026. They go on sale often.
Fallout timeline: the games and TV show in chronological order
The timeline order is very different from the release order, mostly because the newest game is set first.
| Story order | Game or show | Year it's set | Where it's set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fallout 76 | 2102 | West Virginia |
| 2 | Fallout | 2161 | Southern California |
| 3 | Fallout Tactics | 2197 | The Midwest |
| 4 | Fallout 2 | 2241 | Northern California and Nevada |
| 5 | Fallout 3 | 2277 | Washington, D.C. |
| 6 | Fallout: New Vegas | 2281 | The Mojave Desert |
| 7 | Fallout 4 | 2287 | Boston |
| 8 | Fallout (TV series) | 2296 | Los Angeles, then New Vegas |
Fallout 76 begins 25 years after the war, which is why its West Virginia is greener and emptier than the other games' wastelands. Fallout 4 opens with a short scene on the day the bombs fall and then jumps 210 years ahead.
The TV series comes last. It is set in 2296, nine years after Fallout 4, and it's part of the games' official story, not a separate version of it.
Do you need to play the Fallout games in order?
No. Each game is written so a newcomer can follow it.
There are threads that run between them. Fallout 2 stars the grandchild of the first game's hero. The Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave and super mutants turn up nearly everywhere. New Vegas is set in the same region as the first two games and is full of references to them, because many of its developers had worked on those originals. None of this is required knowledge. The games treat it as local history, and characters will explain what you need.
Playing in timeline order is a bad idea for a practical reason. It would start you with an online multiplayer game, send you back to a 1997 PC game with a very different interface, and only reach the modern single-player games at the end.
If you want an order to follow, release order from Fallout 3 onward works well: Fallout 3, New Vegas, Fallout 4, then Fallout 76 if you want something to play with friends. Go back to the 1997 original later if the world has its hooks in you.
Which Fallout game should you play first?
Fallout 4, for most people. It has the best shooting, the smoothest controls and the widest availability, including a Switch 2 version that arrived on February 24, 2026. Native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions have been out since April 2024. Bethesda said in July 2026 that it had sold over 35 million copies, which makes it the entry most players know. Its weak spot is role-playing: your character is voiced and the dialogue choices are narrower than in the older games.
Fallout: New Vegas, for the writing. You play a courier who is shot and left for dead, and you end up deciding which faction controls the Mojave. It's the game fans cite when they talk about choices that matter. It's also a 2010 game built quickly on Fallout 3's technology, so expect stiff animation and the occasional crash.
Fallout 3, for atmosphere. The ruined Washington, D.C. is bleaker and lonelier than any map since, and the moment you step out of Vault 101 is still the series' best introduction to itself. Its main story is the weakest of the three.
Fallout and Fallout 2, for the roots. These are turn-based, top-down and unforgiving, and they're where the series' dark humor comes from. They're worth playing, though for most people they shouldn't come first.
Fallout 76, for co-op. It launched in poor shape in 2018 with no human characters to talk to. The Wastelanders update added them, and years of free expansions have followed, including the Ohio-set Burning Springs. Native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions arrived on September 15, 2026. It's the only Fallout you can play with friends.
All of these are huge. If a map full of markers tends to wear you down, our guide to playing an open world without clearing every icon is written for exactly this kind of game.
Which Fallout game is the TV show based on?
None of them directly. The Prime Video series tells a new story with new characters. It premiered on April 10, 2024, its second season began on December 16, 2025, and a third season has been ordered.
The games that connect most closely are these:
- Fallout: New Vegas. The second season takes its characters to New Vegas, 15 years after the game's events.
- Fallout and Fallout 2. The show's first season is set in the Los Angeles area, in the same California as the original games, and deals with what became of the New California Republic.
- Fallout 4. The closest match for how the show looks: the power armor, the Pip-Boy and the general style.
If you finished the show and want more of that world, New Vegas is the natural next step.
Should you wait for the Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters?
On July 17, 2026, Bethesda and Obsidian confirmed that remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas are in development. No release date has been given for either at the time of writing.
That changes the advice a little. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are the two games in the series that most show their age, and neither has a native version for PS4, PS5 or Switch. If you play on PlayStation, waiting is reasonable, because the remasters are likely to be your first practical way to play them. If you have a PC or an Xbox, the originals cost less than a takeaway and there's no telling how long the wait will be.
Bethesda's last project of this kind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, put a new visual layer over the original game's logic. We used it as the main example in our explainer on the difference between a remake and a remaster.
Is Fallout 5 coming out?
Yes, but not soon. Bethesda's Todd Howard said in 2022 that Fallout 5 would follow The Elder Scrolls VI. In July 2026 the game was officially confirmed to be in pre-production, which is the planning stage before full development.
There is a second new game on the way as well. Alongside the remasters, Bethesda and Obsidian announced that Obsidian is making a new Fallout, with New Vegas director Josh Sawyer leading it. Neither game has a title, platforms or a date.
So the near future of Fallout is the remasters and the third season of the show, and the best time to play the existing games is before those arrive.
A playthrough of any Fallout can run to a hundred hours and a dozen half-finished side quests. In Perthro you can log each game with its platform and hours, and keep notes on which faction you sided with and what you left undone, so a save you come back to after six months still makes sense. Our gaming journal page shows how that looks.
