More than 4m copies of Fallout 3 shipped

By Robert Purchese Published 6 November, 2008

Figure totally eclipses the one for Oblivion.

Bethesda's said that Fallout 3 has shipped approximately 4.7 million copies worldwide, amounting to a potential USD 300 million in sales.

This sterling achievement eclipses any past performance by the company; Oblivion came closest with 1.7 million shipped in roughly the same amount of time. Of course, installed bases have grown and Fallout 3 added an extra platform at launch, but the results are overwhelming nonetheless.

The gigantic post-apocalyptic RPG exploded into the top of the UK all-formats chart this week as a result, outselling all of the previous Fallout games combined - including spin-offs.

The first week sales for Fallout 3 were 57 per cent higher than those for Oblivion, in case you were wondering, and most of those (55 per cent) were of the Xbox 360 version. The PS3 claimed 28 per cent, and the PC just 17 per cent.

Fallout 3 was released last Friday to rapturous critical applause, and top marks from Eurogamer.

But where now for the game? Well, we put this and more of your questions to Bethesda's Pete Hines on Tuesday to find out.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • muscleblade #1 3 years ago

    Suddenly the 3 million budget for Capcoms Resident Evil 5 seems a little low imo. I didnt buy Fallout 3 myself since i have enough with Fable 2, Dead Space and Gears 2 at the moment.

  • Thamuhacha #2 3 years ago

    For what it's worth, having finished Fable 2 and played Fallout for about 4 hours ... Fallout is far and away the better game. By a big, fat mile. Properly deserving of the 10 it got on here IMO.

  • JYM60 #3 3 years ago

    Guns.

  • DoctorZoidberg #4 3 years ago

    Fallout is far and away the better game

    Personally I think they are too different to compare like that. My playthrough of Fable 2 was an absolute bundle of joy, a true masterpiece. Fallout is a lot more gritty, with stronger (if a tad watered down) RPG elements.

  • muscleblade #5 3 years ago

    "My playthrough of Fable 2 was an absolute bundle of joy, a true masterpiece. Fallout is a lot more gritty, with stronger (if a tad watered down) RPG elements. "

    I think i made the right choice then. Dead Space is one of my all time favourite games so i usually like a more streamlined action game with high production values wich doesnt last hundreds of hours. I didnt like Oblivion tbh.

  • Thamuhacha #6 3 years ago

    >Personally I think they are too different to compare like that.

    Not when someone has £45 and wants to know which big, immersive RPG to spend 100 hours on they aren't!

    I liked Fable 2 as well ... but even ignoring the frequent loading times, slow menus, bugs and rubbish conversations i'd still take Fallout 3 any day.

  • sharky_ob #7 3 years ago

    Quite right too, stunning game.

  • agparrot #8 3 years ago

    Bloody Fallout 3 has kept me awake until 3am and beyond every night since Friday, apart from whichever night it was when I fell asleep at about 2.30am in my chair, whilst playing Fallout 3.

    Can hardly wait for my next playthrough, when I am not going to be so nice to everybody, oh No.

  • Maximilian #9 3 years ago

    Think this is my GOTY. Deserves to sell millions.

    All I want now is Thief 4.

  • qoobah #10 3 years ago

    I think i made the right choice then. Dead Space is one of my all time favourite games so i usually like a more streamlined action game with high production values wich doesnt last hundreds of hours. I didnt like Oblivion tbh.

    Yes you have. I'm in the same boat as you, I prefer tightly knit, interesting storyline to aimless wandering, no matter how beautiful the world. I believe that -too much- exploration kills the story element which I value the most in cRPG's - and thats exactly the case with F3. In my opinion Mass Effect came close to equilibrium, there was too much content repetitivness there though.

    I'm a fan of the previous games, but maybe thats another reason why I don't like the game that much - apart from art direction it has nothing in common with previous Fallouts. It _is_ Oblivion with guns. And I didn't like Oblivion at all, never finished it. I'm afraid F3 will share similar fate - I'm 12 hours in and did only the first storyline quest, the rest I spent exploring the beautiful but ultimately boring world. I'm at the point where I struggle to remember why am I doing all these quests in the first place. I could focus on the main storyline I guess, but to put it in Yahtzee's words, I somehow feel the game would hate me for it, and having a completionist soul doesn't help either. All in all this is definately not a game for people who like dramatic, involving storyline or with little free time on their hands - I know I'll struggle to remember the beginning when/if I get around to finishing it.

  • spammage #11 3 years ago

    I'm not surprised it is selling well, it is excellent.

  • Darren #12 3 years ago

    Fallout 3 is superb. For me it's one of those games that started off initially quite good yet not exactly impressive but it's slowly grown better and better over the course of the 32 hours I've been playing it. I do wish I'd bought the PS3 version now though rather than the 360 one. Jaggies and a flucuating framerate I can live with (the latter never spoilt Oblivion for me) but the screen tearing that happens 60% of the time, sometimes it's downright ugly, just ruins any sense of immersion I experience in Fallout 3 and is a constant reminder I'm playing a videogame. I understand the PS3 version uses V-Sync and thus doesn't suffer from this issue. A patch that allows the user to optionally force on V-Sync in the 360 version would be most welcome. Are you reading this Bethesda! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE! ;)

  • gmmonkey #13 3 years ago

    This game is a masterpiece. It's totally blown me away. The game is massive! It looks big when you get out of vault 101, then you start to discover underground forts etc. In my first few hours, I thought it was great but not genius. Then it started to open up and my skills got better and got used to vats. Some of the environments are spectacular. The side story's are awesome. I too have been playing it when I get in from work until 3 in the morning. Already this game is one of my favourite games of all time. It used to be a close tie between zelda ocarina of time/oblivion/kotor and pre-cu swg. I think I prefer this more than oblivion. It doesn't have the levelling system that oblivion had and theirs more attention to detail in the environment. The environment tells a story even if there's no npc there to tell you. For example, you'll go into a house and you'll see two people that have died in theirs sleep hugging on their bed or someones skeleton sitting upright at then end of a pier with booze and drugs around it. This is the most immersive game I've ever played. If you only do the the main quest and a bit of side quests you don't get the most out of this game. Absoloutely love this game.

  • Tomo #14 3 years ago

    Another member of the playing-till-3am-club here.

    My head :/

  • kangarootoo #15 3 years ago

    Me too.

    I've been pretty good the last few nights, but that is because I still recovering from an "up till nearly 4am, out of bed for work at 6am" session earlier in the week :(

  • RedSparrows #16 3 years ago

    Play this too much. Adore it. Exploration is awesome. I've almost done the whole thing on just one character, I tend to do that with RPGs, rather than have multiple chars.

    I just wish the ending and level cap were better.

  • sibrecat #17 3 years ago

    I was getting through Dead space till i got this, now that is on hold. Its an immense game, Im up late as well every night which is fine until i am on 6-2, Was playing it on Pc with a Geforce 7600 and the game played fine with that, but i thought sod it and bought a Radeon 4870, Now it flies with everything maxed out, Looks great ,plays great it just gets better.

  • defdaz #18 3 years ago

    Top stuff, it deserves to do well. Awesome game.

  • Bleh #19 3 years ago

    I'm really enjoying this game. It's been quiet some time for me that a game could grip me so much.
    Have been playing for a couple of hours and still haven't seen much. Gives great potential for the future.

    And as more said before I'm having the same problem not playing to long before work days :p.

  • makeamazing #20 3 years ago

    Good to hear that its selling well :) and that people like it. The more I see little bits of it the more i cannot wait until Xmas to get it :(

  • itsfuzzy #21 3 years ago

    Brilliant game. With some genuine twisted and dark characters, and some really funny dialogue and storylines. Naughty nightwear anyone??
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/08 @ 14:36

  • samk #22 3 years ago

    "Think this is my GOTY."

    Likewise, absolutely awesome game (and this is from someone who didn't like Oblivion at all.) Fully deserving of the 10/10.

    First play through took me 70 hours, and even then I didn't discover all the locations.