In Fallout lore, almost the entire planet is devastated by the Great War in 2077, and what is known about “the rest of the world” is fragmentary, region‑specific, and often second‑hand. Canon focuses heavily on the United States, so anything beyond a few key regions is either vague, implied, or still unexplored.

Before the bombs: global setup

The world was already on fire long before the nukes flew, thanks to the Resource Wars and political collapse.

  • The European Commonwealth fought brutal wars in the Middle East over oil, then collapsed into civil war as member nations tore each other apart.
  • The United Nations disbanded under the strain of these conflicts, losing any power to mediate or control escalation.
  • The United States and China slid into a prolonged conflict, including the Sino–American War over Alaska and its vital energy resources.

All of this set the stage for a final, global nuclear exchange.

The Great War: what actually hit

On October 23, 2077, the Great War lasted roughly two hours and involved massive nuclear exchanges between the U.S., China, and other nuclear powers, effectively destroying organized civilization worldwide.

  • The U.S. mainland was hit repeatedly, turning major cities and industrial centers into craters and irradiated ruins.
  • China was likewise devastated; by the time of the games, it effectively exists only in ruins, scattered tech, and remnants like Chinese submarines and ghouls.
  • “Black rain” and fallout spread across continents, with irradiated storms and long‑term environmental poisoning noted as global, not just American, phenomena.

Canon texts usually talk about impacts “across the United States and likely the globe,” making it clear that this was not a regional exchange.

Europe, Middle East, and Asia

These regions are mentioned more in background lore than in on‑screen content, but there are strong hints about their fate.

  • Europe : The European Commonwealth had already broken into warring states over dwindling resources before 2077, with the “European Civil War” destroying much of its cohesion; nukes and fallout likely finished the job.
  • Middle East : Fought over during the Resource Wars for oil, heavily bombed and destabilized even before the Great War; by 2077, it was already in ruins from conventional and, likely, nuclear conflict.
  • China and greater Asia : China was a primary combatant with the U.S. and was both a launch point and target for nukes, leaving it in a similar or worse condition than the U.S.; other Asian nations are not well documented, but are assumed to be heavily affected by fallout and strikes.

Nothing in current canon shows a “safe” European or Asian superpower rising after the Great War.

Other regions: what is (and isn’t) known

Large parts of the planet are still nearly blank in official material, but a few points are implied.

  • Canada : Prior to the war, Canada was annexed by the U.S. and used as a military corridor to Alaska; given its strategic importance, it was likely heavily targeted and now resembles the U.S. wasteland.
  • Alaska : The front line of the Sino–American War; even before 2077 it had seen intense conventional combat, and there is no indication it escaped nuclear strikes.
  • Africa, South America, Oceania : Lore is almost silent; given the scale of the exchange and global fallout patterns, fans generally assume they suffered a mix of direct strikes, collapsed states, and long‑term radiation, but this remains largely speculative rather than confirmed canon.

Fallout’s creators have deliberately left many of these regions undefined, keeping space open for future games or stories.

So where did anyone survive?

The games and TV show focus on pockets of post‑war society rather than whole nations.

  • United States regions like the Capital Wasteland, the Mojave, the Commonwealth, Appalachia, and post‑war California contain scattered settlements, factions (NCR, Brotherhood of Steel, Enclave, etc.), and vault dwellers.
  • Survival elsewhere in the world is implied by the sheer scale of humanity, but any surviving foreign governments or large stable nations have not been canonically showcased.

In other words, the rest of the world almost certainly still exists in some shattered form, but as far as canon goes, it is a mystery waiting to be explored.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.