Complete Fallout timeline for games and TV show, explained

Amazon’s Fallout TV show is here, and it’s beloved by both new viewers and long-time fans of the franchise. The series introduces a new story to the canon, with Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul as the main characters. However, it’s easy to get lost in the franchise’s vast timeline.

In the first episode, we learn the show takes place in 2296, precisely 219 years after the atomic bombs dropped in the Great War in 2077. However, as the series progresses, there are some aspects of the story that seem to contradict other games in the franchise, more specifically Fallout: New Vegas, which stirred discussions about the timeline.

Luckily, once you dive deeper into the lore, you’ll realize it’s all safe and sound, and no game or story has been erased within the Amazon Prime Fallout TV show. Here’s why (though some spoilers for the show will follow).

Fallout timeline explained

First, let’s take a look at the whole timeline so we can get a better picture of the events in the Fallout series. The whole thing began in 2077, when atomic warheads dropped all over the world to, begin the global apocalypse. Then, almost 100 years later, in 2161, the Vault Dweller, a protagonist in Fallout (1997), left Vault 13.

It’s the first game of the series, with each following one taking place some years afterwards (except Fallout 76), building upon the already-established lore and canon. Here’s how the whole timeline looks:

• The Great War — 2077
• Fallout 76 — 2102
• Fallout — 2161
• Fallout Tactics — 2197
• Fallout 2 — 2241
• Fallout 3 — 2277
• Fallout: New Vegas — 2281
• Fallout 4 — 2287
• Fallout TV show — 2296

Now, the show doesn’t adapt any of the stories from the games but tells an original one, which is confirmed as part of the canon. Why then are there so many controversies about it?

How Fallout TV show is canon and doesn’t erase any past games

There is one specific event in the series that annoyed the fans and sparked fears of Fallout: New Vegas being deleted from the canon. In episodes five and six, Maximus and Lucy stumble upon the ruins, or rather a crater, left by Shady Sands. Almost nothing is left of the settlement, which in the lore was the first capital of the New California Republic, founded in 2142, 19 years before the events from Fallout.

Later on, in episode six, Lucy studies the history of Shady Sands and NCR in one of the classrooms of Vault Four. On the chalkboard, it is written that “Fall of Shady Sands” happened in 2277 (or after 2277, as it’s not crystal clear), and this is where things get tricky.

The year 2277 is exactly four years before events in Fallout: New Vegas, where NCR is the most prominent faction not only in Mojave Wasteland, where the game takes place, but in the whole Western post-apocalyptic U.S. On top of that, in 2227, the first battle of Hoover Dam takes place in the lore. But, the fall or downfall of Shady Sands, NCR’s capital, isn’t mentioned by the in-game characters at all. As a result, fans are afraid the show wiped the entire FNV canon from existence, but that’s not the case.

The destruction of Shady Sands doesn’t have to mean the whole NCR fell down, especially since there are still outposts of NCR out there (one is at Griffith Observatory in the show). Additionally, the Fall of Shady Sands could have started in 2277, but the actual nuclear explosion could have taken place a few years later. More importantly, the event doesn’t have to erase the FNV story, but just add to the universe’s lore on its own. Also, 15 years have passed between FNV and the TV show, during which a lot could have happened.

I know these arguments aren’t that convincing, so let’s see what Bethesda has to say. Before the show’s release, Todd Howard confirmed it’s part of the canon. After it launched and controversies arose, Emil Pagliarulo, the studio design director at Bethesda, said on X “Of course it [Fallout: New Vegas] is [part of the lore]. We’ve never suggested otherwise.” Besides, FNV’s Robert House already appeared in season one.

The story of Fallout TV show doesn’t tie in the rest of the lore as perfectly as fans would like it to be, especially with the mild inconveniences with FNV. With Bethesda itself calming our nerves and season two heading to New Vegas, everything should be sorted as soon as it releases in a few years… hopefully.