Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter
(June 2019 – September 2021)
Fallout 76 has never been nearly as popular as Bethesda probably hoped it would be. At launch, it was a mess with horrible performance problems, very little content, and no human NPCs. And while in recent years it’s gotten better, the game’s awful development makes it hard to even enjoy the good moments.
So, at a time when Fallout 76’s future looked the most bleak, it made total sense that Bethesda would cram a battle royale mode into the online MMO-lite. And while it didn’t explode like Fortnite, it did have a brief period of popularity and was the first sign the game might have a future. Though a lack of players and updates eventually killed it, the main Fallout 76 game remains.
