39% positive. Two Top 10 spots. The math shouldn’t work.

Fallout 1st, Bethesda’s $12.99/month premium subscription for Fallout 76, currently occupies both #8 and #9 on Steam’s Top Sellers chart. Its review score tells a sharply different story: “Mostly Negative,” with just 602 of 1,543 reviews landing positive as of May 29, 2026.

The two chart positions likely represent separate monthly and annual pricing tiers — meaning the same product is outselling most of Steam’s catalog twice over.

The top reviews read like a cautionary tale. One buyer didn’t appear to understand the purchase: “I BOUGHT THIS AND TS DIDNT WORKKK.” Another offered a measured verdict: “Maybe if it was a quarter of the price.” A third was blunter: “BETHESDA LIKES MONEY.”

They’re not wrong to be skeptical. Fallout 1st bundles private worlds, 1,650 monthly Atoms for the in-game shop, a portable survival tent, and unlimited scrap storage. That last feature — unlimited storage — was one of the community’s most requested improvements since Fallout 76’s troubled 2018 launch. Locking it behind a paywall struck players as monetizing a problem Bethesda itself created. As Rock Paper Shotgun described it, Fallout 1st was “a new disappointment” for players already frustrated with Bethesda’s handling of microtransactions.

So why the sales? The most plausible catalyst isn’t on Steam. Amazon’s Fallout television series, which premiered in 2024, drove a sustained surge in franchise player counts. More players means more potential subscribers — some converting for the features, others seemingly clicking before reading the reviews.

The pattern is familiar across live-service games: captive audiences pay for convenience, especially when the alternative is inconvenience by design. Bethesda has weathered six years of Fallout 76 controversies. The revenue has weathered them too.

Sources