Fallout is a series of role-playing games (RPGs) published by Interplay and, later, Bethesda Softworks. Although set in and after the 22nd and 23rd century, its story and artwork are influenced by the post-war culture of 1950s America, and its combination of hope for the promises of technology and lurking fear of nuclear annihilation. The series is sometimes considered to be an unofficial sequel to Wasteland, but it could not use that title as Electronic Arts held the rights to it, and, except for minor references, the games are set in separate universes.

The first two titles in the series (Fallout and Fallout 2) were developed by Black Isle Studios, and had stronger roleplaying characteristics than the subsequent two spin-offs. Micro Forté and 14 Degrees East's Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel of 2001 was a tactical role-playing game. In 2004, Interplay, having closed Black Isle Studios, brought out an action game with RPG elements for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

A third entry in the main series, Fallout 3, was released in 2008 by Bethesda Softworks. Bethesda now owns the rights to make all Fallout games, and has conditionally licensed the rights to make a massively multiplayer online role-playing game version of Fallout to Interplay. A new Fallout game called Fallout: New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, which is made up of many former Black Isle employees.

The background story of Fallout (the first of the series) involves a United States alternate history scenario which diverges from reality following World War II. The transistor was invented just before the war, while vacuum tubes and atomic physics became the cornerstones to scientific progress, eventually achieving the technological aspirations of the early Atomic Age and locking society into a 1950s cultural stasis. Thus, in this alternative "Golden Age", a bizarre socio-technological status quo emerges, in which advanced robots, nuclear-powered cars, directed-energy weapons and other futuristic technologies are seen alongside 1950s-era computers, telephones and typewriters, and the aesthetics and Cold War paranoia of the 1950s continue to dominate the American lifestyle well into the 21st century.

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