By in-universe story chronology, Bethesda’s six mainline Fallout games go Fallout 76 → Fallout → Fallout 2 → Fallout 3 → Fallout: New Vegas → Fallout 4. That is not their release order: the 1997 original came first, while Fallout 76 was released in 2018. The dates below distinguish each game’s principal setting from its release year.
The six mainline Fallout games in story order
Bethesda’s official timeline gives the settings and release years below. Story years refer to the games’ principal settings, not their release dates.
| Story order | Game | Principal setting | Release year | What the story follows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fallout 76 | 2102 | 2018 | Online multiplayer survivors emerge from Vault 76, 25 years after the Great War of 2077. |
| 2 | Fallout | 2161 | 1997 | The Vault Dweller searches Southern California for a replacement water chip. |
| 3 | Fallout 2 | 2241 | 1998 | The Chosen One seeks a G.E.C.K. for Arroyo. |
| 4 | Fallout 3 | 2277 | 2008 | The Lone Wanderer leaves Vault 101 in search of their father. |
| 5 | Fallout: New Vegas | 2281 | 2010 | The Courier becomes caught up in a struggle for power in the Mojave. |
| 6 | Fallout 4 | 2287 | 2015 | The Sole Survivor searches the Commonwealth for their missing son. |
Dates and story descriptions are from Bethesda’s official Fallout timeline.
Release order, if you want to play as the series first appeared
To follow the six mainline games in release order, play Fallout (1997), Fallout 2 (1998), Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout: New Vegas (2010), Fallout 4 (2015), then Fallout 76 (2018). This preserves the order players encountered them, rather than arranging them by their fictional dates.
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Which order should a first-time player choose?
Choose story chronology to follow the in-universe timeline
Start with Fallout 76 if you want the earliest setting among these six, then continue through the older and newer wasteland stories in the table. Note that the first game in this order is the online multiplayer entry.
Choose release order to follow the series’ development
Start with the 1997 Fallout and proceed by release year. That lets you experience the mainline games in the sequence they arrived, instead of beginning with a later-developed game set earlier in the fictional history.
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Bethesda says “any Fallout game can be your first.” That is publisher guidance, not a claim that one play order is objectively best. The choice depends on whether you value in-world chronology, release history, or starting with a particular format.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where the spin-offs fit
“Fallout games” can mean more than the six mainline titles. Bethesda also identifies Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout Pinball as franchise entries. The official sources cited here do not give a complete in-universe year-by-year order for these spin-offs, so their release years should not be mistaken for story dates.
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- Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001): a squad-combat game blending real-time and turn-based play.
- Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004): a more action-oriented console entry.
- Fallout Shelter (2015): a Vault-management spin-off.
- Fallout Pinball (2016): a virtual pinball board.
Bethesda’s guide to Fallout games describes the entries and spin-offs; it does not establish a complete chronology for every one.
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