A Modest Beginning for the Old Country

Mafia: The Old Country – A Rough Ride?

So, where do I even start with Mafia: The Old Country? The game’s out now on PC and consoles, and I’ve gotta say, it’s not exactly blowing up the charts like the older Mafia games did. Or maybe it just feels that way to me. Released on August 8, 2025 — a date I had to double-check because, honestly, who remembers these things?

I remember the first announcement back in August 2024, like, just another day. Hangar 13 cooked it up, brought it to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The critics gave it a “Strong” on OpenCritic with a 77 score. Positive, but kinda meh, right? I think people loved the production values and the story, but some said it doesn’t do anything new. Playing it safe, they called it. Which is weird because, isn’t safe supposed to be good? I dunno.

Now, numbers aren’t my thing, but on its launch weekend, the game pulled in 35,247 players on Steam, which sounds like a lot until you remember Mafia 3 hit almost 48,000 back in 2016. I didn’t even know those games were that popular! It ranked third on Steam’s Top Sellers, trailing behind Counter-Strike 2 and Battlefield 6. So at least it wasn’t a total flop. Or maybe it was just a slow release time of year?

And the sales predictions? Oh boy, here we go. Gamalytic and PlayTracker think it sold about 186,000 copies on Steam in the first 36 hours. I wasn’t counting. Supposedly, games this size might sell 20 times their peak on Steam in the first week. Sounds ambitious. Like, up to 700,000 units? But only if pigs fly. Or something like that. Who figures out these things, anyway?

We talk about how much PC gamers contribute to sales—up to half, they say, but maybe only a third for Mafia: The Old Country. With Steam being its whole world for PC players now, those PlayStation Store reviews are tiny in comparison, about 4,000 reviews. Somehow this predicts about 400,000 PlayStation sales? I’m not sure how they do the math, but I just nod along.

Realistically, looks like the game isn’t hitting a million in sales yet, though the series boasts 35 million sold overall. Not bad, right? But The Old Country might need 1.76 million copies shifted for $60 million in revenue to hit even. Yet, who decides where this cash even goes? Development in 2022 and behind-the-scenes costs like marketing are mysteries to me. It all feels like trying to catch smoke.

Bottom line: Mafia: The Old Country isn’t killing it yet. But, hey, maybe they’ll surprise us? Who knows, these game things can change overnight. Or maybe not.