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Fallout Games in Order: Release Order and Timeline

By Man Talk Staff · Updated July 22, 2026 · 12 min read

Fallout games in order means two different lists, and picking the right one shapes the whole experience. By release date, the series starts with Fallout in 1997 and runs through Fallout 76 in 2018. By in-universe chronology, Fallout 76 comes first in 2102, and Fallout 4 closes the game timeline in 2287. The Prime Video series lands after every game, in 2296. That answer covers the short version. The longer version has spin-offs, a non-canon console game, and a timeline that jumps coasts and centuries. This guide lays out both orders in full, with a table for each. It also covers where every entry is playable in 2026, from Steam and GOG to Game Pass and the Switch 2. Newcomers get a straight recommendation on where to start, and it is not the 1997 original. The staff behind Man Talk have been in these wastelands since the first game shipped on CD-ROM. Consider this the map out of the vault.

Every Fallout game in release order

Eleven Fallout releases span 1997 through 2019. The main line runs Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76. Spin-offs fill the gaps: Fallout Tactics, the 2004 Brotherhood of Steel console game, Fallout Shelter, a pinball table, and Shelter Online.

1. Fallout (1997), Interplay, the isometric original
2. Fallout 2 (1998), Black Isle Studios
3. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001), squad-combat spin-off
4. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004), console action spin-off, non-canon
5. Fallout 3 (2008), Bethesda's first-person reboot
6. Fallout: New Vegas (2010), Obsidian Entertainment
7. Fallout Shelter (June 2015), free vault-management sim
8. Fallout 4 (November 2015), Bethesda Game Studios
9. Fallout Pinball (2016), licensed Zen Studios table
10. Fallout 76 (2018), the always-online entry
11. Fallout Shelter Online (2019), Asia-only sequel

The 10-year gap between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 nearly killed the series. Interplay hit financial trouble and canceled Van Buren, its own Fallout 3 project, in 2003. Bethesda licensed the property in 2004 and bought it outright in 2007 for $5.75 million. Measured against what the series earns now, that price looks like theft. Strictly speaking, a modern playthrough in release order means eight games. The pinball table and the Asia-only Shelter sequel are footnotes, and the 2004 console game is best left in 2004.

Fallout games in chronological timeline order

Chronological order starts with Fallout 76 in 2102 and ends with Fallout 4 in 2287. The Prime Video show extends the story to 2296. Every entry sits after the Great War of October 23, 2077, when a two-hour nuclear exchange ended civilization.

Notice how far the timeline strays from release order. The newest mainline game holds the earliest date, and the main entries only line up from Fallout 2 onward. That happened because Bethesda set Fallout 76 as a prequel, a fresh start just 25 years after the bombs. The rest of the series sits one to two centuries deeper into the recovery.

Two entries carry asterisks. Fallout Tactics is treated as broadly canon in outline, though Bethesda has never confirmed its details. The 2004 Brotherhood of Steel console game sits officially outside the canon, so its rough 2208 placement changes nothing for anyone's playthrough. All other dates come from in-game terminals, dialogue, and Bethesda's published materials. The fan community keeps meticulous records of every one.

The classic era: Fallout, Fallout 2, and Tactics

The first three games arrived between 1997 and 2001, built by Interplay, Black Isle Studios, and Micro Forte. All three are isometric PC games set generations before the Bethesda titles. They created the vaults, the Brotherhood of Steel, super mutants, and the New California Republic.

The 1997 original opens in 2161, 84 years after the bombs. A dweller leaves Vault 13 to find a replacement water chip, with a strict time limit driving the search. Turn-based combat and skill checks came from its tabletop design roots. The tone set the template: bleak, funny, and morally gray.

Fallout 2 followed just one year later and jumps the story to 2241. The Chosen One, a descendant of the first game's hero, hunts a Garden of Eden Creation Kit to save a starving village. It introduced the Enclave and showed the New California Republic as a functioning power. Many longtime fans still call it the deepest RPG in the series.

Fallout Tactics landed in March 2001 as a squad-combat spin-off set in 2197 around Chicago. It follows a Midwest chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel rather than a lone wanderer. The story sits loosely in canon, and the mission structure plays more like a war game than an RPG.

Are the 1997 and 1998 classics worth playing today?

Yes, with honest caveats. The interfaces feel ancient, the combat is slow, and both games assume patient reading. The writing holds up better than most modern scripts, though, and each run lasts 20 to 30 hours. Both cost about $10 and run on modern Windows through the GOG builds. Man Talk staff first played these on beige-box Pentiums, and the pull has not faded.

The Bethesda era: Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4

Bethesda rebooted the series in first-person 3D with Fallout 3 on October 28, 2008. Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas followed in 2010, and Fallout 4 arrived on November 10, 2015. These three carry the timeline from 2277 to 2287 and remain the standard entry points.

Fallout 3 moved the setting east to the ruins of Washington DC, called the Capital Wasteland. The VATS targeting system bridged the old turn-based roots and modern shooter expectations. Leaving Vault 101 for the first time remains one of gaming's great reveals.

New Vegas is the fan favorite, built by Obsidian Entertainment in roughly 18 months. Several of its developers had worked on the original games at Black Isle, and the connective tissue shows. Set in 2281, it pits the NCR against Caesar's Legion for the Mojave, with a lone courier tipping the scales. Its faction reputation system and branching endings are still the series' high-water mark.

Fallout 4 shipped 12 million copies on launch day, generating roughly $750 million in 24 hours. It added a voiced protagonist, settlement building, and a deep crafting loop in 2287 Boston. Purists knock the flattened dialogue choices, and the criticism is fair. As a first Fallout, though, nothing in the series is easier to pick up. The Anniversary Edition landed in November 2025 with all six expansions and more than 150 Creation Club items.

Each Bethesda-era game carries expansions worth playing in release order too. Fallout 3's Broken Steel raises the level cap and rewrites a famously abrupt ending. New Vegas runs four story add-ons that chain into a loose arc about the courier's past. Fallout 4's Far Harbor and Nuka-World stand with the best content in the series.

Fallout 76: the earliest story from the latest game

Fallout 76 released on November 14, 2018, yet sits first in the timeline, starting in 2102. Players leave Vault 76 to resettle Appalachia only 25 years after the bombs. It is the sole always-online entry and the only Fallout without a pause button.

The launch went badly by any measure. Human NPCs were absent, bugs were everywhere, and the collector's edition canvas-bag dispute became its own news cycle. The Wastelanders update in April 2020 rebuilt the game around human characters and real questlines. Steady seasonal updates since have kept it improving.

The TV show then did what no patch could. Bethesda reported more than one million players in a single day across platforms in April 2024. The game keeps growing sideways through map and story additions rather than a date change. For timeline purposes, its story window runs roughly 2102 through 2104.

Where the Fallout TV show fits in the timeline

The Prime Video series is set in 2296, nine years after Fallout 4 and later than any game. It is fully canon. Season one premiered on April 10, 2024, in Los Angeles, and season two arrived in December 2025, set around New Vegas.

The show follows three leads whose paths cross in the former Los Angeles. One is a vault dweller, one a Brotherhood squire, and one a pre-war bounty hunter turned ghoul. Flashbacks return to 2077 and the days before the Great War, so the series spans both ends of the timeline. Bethesda treats the events as canon, and season two leans directly on New Vegas locations and factions. Fans of the Mojave game will recognize plenty.

Can you watch the show without playing the games?

Absolutely. The show was written to stand alone, and season one became one of Prime Video's most watched debuts. Game references reward longtime fans without gating the plot. Watching first is a solid on-ramp. Plenty of viewers went straight from the finale into Fallout 4 or 76, and the player numbers proved it.

Where to play every Fallout game in 2026

Every mainline Fallout game is on PC through Steam and GOG, and the full mainline set is on Xbox Game Pass. PlayStation gets Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 natively. The Switch 2 received the Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition on February 24, 2026, the first mainline entry on a Nintendo console.

A few notes on that table. The classic trio costs about $10 per game, and the GOG versions come pre-patched for modern Windows. Fallout 3 and New Vegas run on Xbox Series consoles through backward compatibility, with performance boosts included. Game Pass catalogs rotate, so confirm before subscribing; the Fallout lineup has stayed put since the show premiered. Bethesda keeps current store links for every entry at fallout.bethesda.net.

One entry stays stranded. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, the 2004 console game, has never been re-released digitally. Playing it legally means hunting original PS2 or Xbox discs. Given its reputation, the effort outweighs the reward.

Pricing stays friendly across the board. Fallout 3 and New Vegas bundle every expansion into editions that sell for around $20, and both discount to under $10 during seasonal sales. Fallout 76 lists below $40 and drops further constantly. A complete series run costs less than one new release at full price.

Which Fallout game should you play first?

Start with Fallout 4 if you want modern controls and the easiest entry point. Start with Fallout: New Vegas if writing and choice matter more than polish. Release order suits series purists, but timeline order is a poor way in, because Fallout 76 assumes an experienced player.

The case for Fallout 4 is friction, or the lack of it. Modern shooting, a guided opening, and current versions on every platform make it the smoothest landing. The case for New Vegas is depth: sharper writing, real choices, and an ending that reacts to dozens of decisions. Either works. The classics reward a later visit, once the setting has its hooks in you.

A third path exists: watch the show first. Season one asks for zero homework and lands the tone of the games almost perfectly. The games then slot in naturally, and Fallout 4 even received a next-gen update timed near the premiere. Whichever door you pick, the wasteland is the same on the other side.

Do you need to play the Fallout games in order?

No. Every Fallout game stars a new protagonist in a new region, and each story stands alone. Recurring factions like the Brotherhood of Steel get reintroduced every time. Play order changes which references land, not whether the plot makes sense. Pick the game that fits your hardware and your patience, and start there.

Is timeline order a good way to play?

Not for a first run. Timeline order opens with Fallout 76, an online game balanced around veteran players and live-service systems. It also buries the oldest, hardest interfaces in the middle of the run. Timeline order works best as a second lap, when tracing the lore becomes the point. Watching the NCR rise across 2161, 2241, and 2281, then seeing its flag in the show, is the payoff.

The spin-offs and what they add

Four spin-offs orbit the main series: Fallout Tactics, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout Shelter Online. Only Tactics meaningfully touches the timeline. Shelter, released in June 2015, is by far the most played of the four.

Fallout Shelter earned its numbers honestly. The free vault-management sim hit phones in June 2015, announced on stage hours before it launched. It later spread to PC, consoles, and Switch, and it pulled in more than $5 million in its first two weeks. Fallout Pinball, a licensed Zen Studios table from 2016, exists mostly as trivia. Shelter Online, a 2019 sequel with collectible heroes, never released outside Asia.

The 2004 Brotherhood of Steel game is the series' black sheep. A console action shooter with a licensed nu-metal soundtrack, it flopped hard and sped Interplay toward collapse. Nothing in it is required reading. Completionists aside, the practical release order runs eight games, not eleven.

For quality rankings rather than order, the companion list at every Fallout game ranked settles which entries deserve your hours. The Man Talk gaming section tracks the series' next moves, including whatever Fallout 5 turns out to be. The about page covers how these guides get made. Now go find a water chip.

Frequently asked questions

What order should you play the Fallout games in?

Play in release order if you want the full arc, but skipping ahead is fine. Each game tells a self-contained story with a new protagonist. Most newcomers should start with Fallout 4 for modern controls or New Vegas for the strongest writing, then work backward as curiosity grows.

Is Fallout 76 the first game in the timeline?

Yes. Fallout 76 takes place in 2102, only 25 years after the bombs fell in 2077. That makes it the earliest playable point in the series, more than half a century before the original Fallout in 2161. Every other entry, including the TV show, happens later.

Where does the Fallout TV show fit in the timeline?

The Prime Video series is set in 2296, nine years after Fallout 4 and after every game in the timeline. It is fully canon, produced with Bethesda's involvement. Season one covers Los Angeles, season two moves to New Vegas, and flashbacks show the pre-war world of 2077.

Are the original Fallout games still playable in 2026?

Yes. Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics all sell for around $10 each on Steam and GOG, and the GOG builds run well on modern Windows. The only entry that is genuinely hard to play legally is Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, the 2004 console spin-off.