Fallout Shelter is making big money for Bethesda, raking in an estimated $5.1 million since its launch last month. Also it's still not on Android.

Fallout Shelter, the vault management game people lost their minds about during Bethesda's Pre-E3 Press Event, has made $5.1 Million according to digital research firm Superdata Research. Which begs the question -- are people insane? What exactly are they buying in this game? Lunchboxes filled with the chance to get a random weapon or rare vault dweller? What does that bring to the table?

I've played the game, and it's certainly addictive enough, exploiting that feedback loop where you press on a room to gain electricity or food or water. That's some high quality gamification, and the game deserves props for nailing that. It also doesn't force you to buy money to speed things up or anything stupid like that, which I appreciate. People are basically just paying money to support the game, but an estimated $5.1 million? The Superdata Research report tries to dig into why the game is making money,

More significant than the publisher’s success is the notion that core gaming fans proved to be willing customers for a free-to-play mobile game. By emphasizing unobtrusive monetization and offline playability, Bethesda managed to earn the respect of a consumer group that is otherwise highly critical of free-to-play monetization.

As evidenced above, Bethesda earned my respect and I'm obviously highly critical of free-to-play monetisation. I still didn't spend any money on the game. How did respect transform into $5.1 million? If I could work out that formula I'd try to leverage it into millions of my own, but I don't get no respect anyway. No regard, either.

Further, the game hasn't even released on Android yet, but at this stage it seems Bethesda is aiming to release the game on the most popular mobile operating system next month some time.

Have you bought any lunchboxes in Fallout Shelter? How many did you buy exactly? No, I'm not your mother, but I'm concerned about you anyway. I worry that if I look away you might buy another three ships in Star Citizen.