The newest Nielsen ratings have arrived, showing a gigantic drop-off for Fallout Season 2 compared to Fallout Season 1. However, there is an obvious explanation for the dip.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fallout viewership reached 794 million minutes on Prime Video for the week of December 15-21, which covers when Season 2 debuted on December 16. Season 1 racked up 2.9 billion minutes of streaming time during its own opening week in April 2024. That’s a 72% decrease, but the massive downturn was no doubt attributable to how the two seasons were released.
Season 1, many may recall, was released in a binge format with all episodes arriving at the same time. Season 2, meanwhile, is adopting a weekly release schedule. What’s more, just one episode of Fallout Season 2 was released on December 16, compared to two or three that Prime Video does for some of its other shows.
Given all this, it only makes sense that Fallout Season 1 would have significantly higher viewership statistics compared to Season 2.
According to the Nielsen data–which combines multiple seasons in its ranking reports– 54% of Fallout streaming minutes on Prime Video for the December 15-21 week were from Season 2, making up about 429 million minutes. The rest came from viewership of Season 1.
Fallout Season 2 just recently aired its fifth episode, with three more to come each Wednesday until Season 2 wraps on February 4. A third season will follow sometime later and could start filming sooner than expected.
For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of Fallout Season 2, Episode 5.
Beyond the TV series, Bethesda is rumored to be at work on remakes of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, along with the brand-new game Fallout 5.
