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Fallout TV show popularity prompts NexusMods to issue traffic warning

UPDATE: "We know this has been incredibly frustrating."

An atomic explosion creates a fiery mushroom cloud, seen in Fallout 76.
Image credit: Bethesda

UPDATE 23/4/24: Top modding site Nexus Mods has issued an update on its efforts to stay online amidst a deluge of Fallout fans fresh from watching Amazon's hit TV series.

"We are aware that over the last seven to nine days our website performance has been heavily degraded, with file download speeds being particularly slow," a blog post reads. "We know this has been incredibly frustrating for you and it's frustrating for us as well. We have spent two weekends battling to keep the site running as best we can and will continue to work at all hours to try and ensure as smooth an experience as possible."

Traffic graphs shared by Nexus Mods show a huge rise in downloads for mods related to Fallout 4 and to lesser (and more recent) extent, Fallout: New Vegas.

How to build Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus in Fallout 4.Watch on YouTube

Nexus Mods says it has limited capacity to scale up so quickly for what may yet be a relatively short traffic spike - as interest in Fallout will presumably begin to wane in the weeks to come. In the meantime, though, the site is bracing itself for another big hit of site traffic again this weekend, as modders visit once again.

"We are anticipating another big weekend ahead and will do whatever we can to keep the site running as smoothly as possible," Nexus Mods concluded. "We will deploy extra resources where possible and will be monitoring uptime and performance across the network."

ORIGINAL STORY 22/4/24: The huge popularity of Amazon Prime's Fallout TV series is causing traffic problems for top mod download website Nexus Mods.

Nexus Mods first issued a warning it was experiencing heavy network traffic that could cause a "degraded experience" last Friday. The site said it had deployed "extra resources" twice over the weekend in order to cope with the extra demand - but problems continue.

As of 8am UK time this morning, Nexus Mods is still continuing to investigate the issue. According to an official status page, the Nexus Mods website, API, CDN and forum are all currently suffering from a "degraded performance".

We've seen over the past couple of weeks how the Fallout TV series' popularity has had a knock-on effect for the franchise's video games - and in particular, Fallout 4.

Now nearly a decade old, Fallout 4's experience has been widely improved by the addition of fan-made modifications to the base experience. There are also newly-created tweaks to introduce Fallout TV show elements to Bethesda's games.

There are Fallout 4 mods available so you can play as Lucy or Ghoul, hear music from the TV show, and replace billboards with designs featuring elements from Amazon's episodes.

Over the weekend, our Ian took a look at the Fallout 4 VR mods, and asked whether they made the game worth revisiting once again.

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