© David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
© Ryan Murphy for The New York Times
Fallout Season 2 ratings are down compared to the explosive debut of Season 1 – but there’s a good reason for that.
Information about how Bethesda and Amazon’s adaptation is faring during its second season comes from recently released Nielsen streaming stats (via The Hollywood Reporter). The numbers show Fallout drawing 794 million minutes watched between the week of December 15 – 21, 2025, with its premiere episode, The Innovator, arriving December 16. For comparison, Fallout Season 1 premiered to 2.9 billion minutes watched when it made its way to Prime Video in April 2024.
It’s the kind of downward trend that many may assume has Amazon shaking in its boots, but it’s far from the full picture. There’s one major point to consider: all eight episodes of Season 1 premiered on the same day, while Season 2 published just one episode at release. In other words, Prime Video subscribers had a lot of new content to sink their teeth into in 2024, so 794 million minutes watched for just one new episode to account for isn’t so bad.
In fact, Nielsen reports Fallout Season 2 Episode 1 accounted for 54% of the show’s watch time during the week of December 15 (Season 1 episodes accounted for the rest), so it’s easy to imagine that number getting an additional boost if more new episodes had dropped that same day. Even considering the weekly release strategy, Fallout still managed to be the only Prime Video show to land in Nielsen’s Top 10 Overall streaming ratings for minutes watched between December 15 – 21, coming in at number seven. That puts it well below Stranger Things at the number one spot with 2.38 billion minutes watched, but above Grey’s Anatomy, which is placed at 10 with 642 million minutes watched.
Stats for Fallout Season 2 Episodes 2 through 5 have yet to be published, with the show still very much in the middle of rolling out new episodes in its post-apocalyptic follow-up story every Wednesday. Episode 5, The Wrangler, premiered January 14, with three more set to follow January 21, January 28, and February 4.
It’s easy to look at the Fallout Season 2 ratings and assume the worst, but for now, it doesn’t look like the video game show is going anywhere. For more, you can check out IGN’s reviews for Episodes 2, 3, 4, and 5. You can also read about Prime Video’s recently announced Fallout Shelter reality competition series.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
© Saher Alghorra for The New York Times
Amazon is offering a great deal on a compact air purifier that would be great for your workstation or gaming desk area. Right now, Amazon Prime members can get a Tailulu H13 True HEPA Air Purifier for just $49.99 with free delivery after a 45% off instant discount. This is a general purpose purifier that will clear out even the tiniest of particles in a small room. However, it can serve yet another very practical purpose for PC gamers: It minimizes the dust going into your gaming PC and reduces the frequency that you need to clean it out.
Amazon Prime member exclusive
The Tailulu air purifier measures 8"x8"x16". Although it's officially rated for 1,680 square feet of space, that is extremely generous. Just going by other similarly sized purifiers of the same design, in reality it is better for a small room (like a bedroom, office, or gaming den), or for best results, situated right next to where you occupy the most, like your desk or bed. As long as you're not getting this purifier for a huge space, you shouldn't be disappointed.
The purifier employs a common cylindrical design where the three-stage filtration system wraps around the enclosure for full 360-degree coverage and a squirrel cage fan exhausts clean air out the top. The main filter is H13 HEPA rated, meaning that it is nearly 100% effective at capturing particles as small as 0.3 microns. There's also a washable prefilter (essentially a mesh screen) that captures larger particles and a carbon filter for odor removal.
If you've owned a purifier before, you're probably aware that the real cost of a purifier lies in the cost of filter replacements. 2-pack of filters currently costs $32 (for Prime members). Tailulu suggests replacing the filters every 3-6 months. 3 months is way too conversative, especially if you're placing this in a room that isn't very dirty. If we use 6 months as our guideline, then one pack will last you one year, which equates to about $2.67 per month.
A proper gaming PC has plenty of airflow, and that air is inevitably going to bring in a lot of dust. The most common way of dealing with this is to install air filters in front of the intake fans. I personally do not like using filters. They reduce the amount of airflow going in and that progressively worsens as the filters get clogged. Proper maintenance eliminates that issue, but let's be honest: Most gamers don't clean out their case often enough.
I've personally done away with fan filters entirely. Instead, I stick my bedroom air purifier right next to my gaming PC so that the purifier's exhaust flows right into the intake vents on my PC. Despite having no filters, I blow out my case only once a year and even then it's really just a fine layer of dust that has accumulated. Of course, the additional side benefit (and the main benefit for most people) is that it also filters the air I'm breathing in.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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