So many people are downloading Fallout mods after watching the show that the Nexus is straining to support all the traffic

Vault overseer
(Image credit: Prime TV)

First reported by PCGamesN, ubiquitous videogame mod site NexusMods has been experiencing interruptions due to an influx of traffic as new and old Fallout fans check out the games after watching the show. Fallouts 4, New Vegas, and 3 are the third, fourth, and eighth all-time biggest games on the site, commanding over 2 billion total downloads across the three.

The NexusMods status page first flagged the problem on April 19, with a message explaining why users may encounter slow load times and downloads. "We are experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV show," the message reads. "We have deployed extra resources where possible and we are monitoring the uptime and performance across the network. We have staff on call at all times to deal with any problems."

According to the status page, the increased traffic and performance issues remain unresolved and under investigation as of early this morning, and the Nexus is actively rerouting download traffic to account for this. At the time of writing, I'm not having any issues loading into the site, and I was able to download a small mod as a test.

Over the weekend though, I definitely had a bit of trouble trying to access NexusMods to report on The Witcher 3 Brothers In Arms unofficial patch, but I didn't think much of it at the time⁠. One thing we've been surprised at is how few direct Fallout show mods there seem to be so far⁠—a few Lucy presets, some sound packs, icons⁠, all pretty tame. 

I cannot stress enough that I want to play Fallout 4 as Walton Ghoulgins about as much as I wish I could play as robot detective companion Nick Valentine. Come to think of it, I'd be happy playing as anyone other than Shaun's mom or dad⁠—the latter of whom may or may not have gotten up to some dirty deeds during the Canadian occupation.

I've been feeling the pull of Bethesda's 2015 entry⁠—I've definitely softened on it over the years⁠—but my heart truly yearns for a Fallout 1 and 2 back to back marathon. If you too would like to spend five hours missing all of your attacks before the game actually starts being fun, check out our guide on how to get the most out of the classic Fallout games today⁠—they run pretty well out of the box on Steam and GOG, but there are still some mods and fan patches that can really button things up for you. 

Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.