Fallout Shelter was intended to be a small side attraction - a disposable advert-game to promote Fallout 4. Instead it's ended up being the most played Fallout game ever.
This according to Bethesda's Todd Howard, who told an audience at the DICE summit just how many play sessions his studio had counted for the mobile game:
"I think the last stat was 4 billion sessions, making it the most played Fallout game of any Fallout games combined. We wanted to do something smaller that wasn't this big three or four year thing and it exploded.
"It brought in an audience you'd never expect."
Fallout Shelter was originally conceived all the way back in 2008, so it must be incredibly rewarding for Bethesda to see so many people playing so much of the game. If you're still beavering away, here's seven tips to keep you on top of your underground lair. Not literally.
Howard also confirmed Bethesda is currently working on three 'long term' projects, each 'different' to what the studio has put out in the past. We can still expect them to be big, huge experiences - and guessing at an Elder Scrolls 6 wouldn't be a bad bet - but it's fair to assume there'll be something totally new too.
These games will be subject to Bethesda's new approach to announcements. That is to say, they'll be held off on until just a few months before release - it worked really well for Fallout 4, and who are we to argue with that?
