Bethesda continually updates and adds content to Fallout 76 despite its rocky launch, the latest of which lets players finally become a ghoul for the first time in the franchise.

The new update is apparently so popular that the game’s player count roughly doubled on Steam alone, from around 8,500 players just before the update on March 17th to around 16,500 players on March 18th, the day of the new ghoul update.

While the player count milestone is definitely a nice boost it pales in comparison to the massive spike in players the game received just after the big Amazon live-action Fallout show premiered last spring.

That surge in players saw its biggest player count to date, topping 73,000 players on April 15th just a couple days after the show premiered – as reported by Steamdb. To be clear, Fallout 76 originally launched for PC exclusively via the now-defunct Bethesda Launcher, though it eventually got a Steam release 2 years after its debut in 2020.

We don’t have data for the PC release in those first two years on the Bethesda Launcher but Steam is the biggest PC gaming platform on planet earth, so it’s safe to say the huge surge in players last spring is the most Fallout 76 has seen in its entire lifespan.

The new update bringing in a decent surge of players shows that perhaps more fanservice-y things bring in more enthusiasm for the franchise – like playing as ghouls finally. The new update focuses entirely only letting you become a ghoul but you can also un-ghoul yourself if you’re feeling a little inhuman. The caveat here though is that once you un-ghoul, you never go back to being a ghoul.

Being a ghoul in Fallout 76 brings with it more perks alongside the obvious physical changes to becoming a ghoul, chiefly that you get one special perk for each S.P.E.C.I.A.L. category like “Bone Shatterer” and “Glowing Gut,” among other perks.

Fallout 76 has been available for Windows PC (via Steam and the Microsoft Store), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Get our review for the game!