Fallout timeline for the show and games explained

Curious where the new Fallout TV show fits into the timeline established in the video game series? Load this handy guide into your Pip-Boy!

Power Armor in Fallout. Credit: Prime Video © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC
Power Armor in Fallout. Credit: Prime Video © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC

The Fallout television show is out now on Prime Video! Based on the beloved game franchise by Bethesda Softworks and adapted for TV by Jonathan Nolan (Westworld), Fallout is a quirky, ultra-violent, stylish take on the post-apocalypse that sways between hilarious and chillingly insightful depending on the moment. The video game franchise is renowned for its very particular sense of humor and its unique 1940s US nostalgia-driven aesthetic. The show embraces that tone to tell a mind-bending sci-fi story that spans hundreds of years.

Prime Video's Fallout is unique as adaptations go in that it's not recreating the story of any one particular bit of source material; instead, it's telling a brand new tale in the same style as the Fallout games. The games are considered canon to the TV show. With that in mind, you may be wondering about how exactly Prime Video's Fallout fits on the timeline, especially in relation to the various games in the franchise.

We've got you covered! Here's a timeline for the Fallout franchise, starting from the day the bombs dropped over the United States:

  • 2077 — The Great War
  • 2102Fallout 76
  • 2161Fallout (original video game)
  • 2241 — Fallout 2
  • 2277 — Fallout 3
  • 2281 — Fallout: New Vegas
  • 2287 — Fallout 4
  • 2296 — Fallout (TV show)
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Walton Goggins as The Ghoul in Fallout.

The Fallout TV show takes place in 2296

As you can see, Prime Video's Fallout television show is set around 9 years after the events of Fallout 4, the latest game in the franchise's chronology. The show doesn't make a huge point of this fact, although there are Easter eggs to be found that tie it to Fallout 4 in some light, humorous ways.

The primary storyline for the Fallout TV show takes place in 2296, more than two centuries after the bombs fell. However, Fallout also has a recurring storyline set during the time period of the Great War as well, roughly 219 years before our intrepid Vault Dweller Lucy roams the Wasteland. Hopefully, this makes navigating the show's multiple timelines a little easier to understand.

All eight episodes of Fallout are available now to stream on Prime Video.

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