Every Mafia game, ranked
All 3 Mafia games we hold, spanning 2011 to 2020: 3 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 233,318 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Mafia II (Classic) (GamingPickz Score 8.1), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The Mafia games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 3 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.
3 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 3 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
3 best Mafia games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Mafia II (Classic)
Best for: Players who trust other players over critics
8.1GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceMafia II (Classic) at a glance Released 2011 Studio 2K Czech Player sentiment 94% positive of 58,640 Critics 77/100 Price $29.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 8 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 94% shrinks to 93.9 on 58,640 reviews, then blends with the 77 critic aggregate, giving 8.1.
What the data supports- Small install at 8 GB.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 94 against 77. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
- 2
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category
7.9GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceMafia: Definitive Edition at a glance Released 2020 Studio Hangar 13 Player sentiment 87% positive of 110,615 Critics 78/100 Price $39.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 50 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 87% shrinks to 87.0 on 110,615 reviews, then blends with the 78 critic aggregate, giving 7.9.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- 3
Mafia III: Definitive Edition
Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category
5.7GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceMafia III: Definitive Edition at a glance Released 2020 Studio Hangar 13 Player sentiment 57% positive of 64,063 Critics No aggregate Price $29.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 50 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 57% shrinks to 57.2 on 64,063 reviews, giving 5.7. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Mafia game we can score is Mafia II (Classic) at 8.1. The lowest is Mafia III: Definitive Edition at 5.7, a 2.4-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 2011 to 2020. The later entries score lower than the earlier ones: the series has been trending down.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Mafia II (Classic) at $29.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Mafia II (Classic), the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.
On a Steam Deck
Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Mafia entries on Steam:
- Playable: Mafia: Definitive Edition
- Unsupported: Mafia II (Classic), Mafia III: Definitive Edition
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Mafia games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
The Mafia series, game by game
Every Mafia game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.
- 2011
Vito Scaletta has started to make a name for himself on the streets of Empire Bay as someone who can be trusted to get a job done. Together with his buddy Joe, he is working to prove himself to the Mafia, quickly escalating up the family ladder with crimes of larger reward, status and consequence… the life as a wise guy isn’t quite as... (Steam)
- 2020
An inadvertent brush with the mob thrusts cabdriver Tommy Angelo into the world of organized crime. Initially uneasy about falling in with the Salieri family, the rewards become too big to ignore. (Steam)
Plot
See also: Mafia (video game) § Plot In 1938, mobster Thomas "Tommy" Angelo meets police detective John Norman and seeks his help to secure his family's protection from his former associates, the Salieri crime family . To prove that his story is true, Tommy offers to tell Norman what led to his current predicament. In 1930, Tommy is a taxi driver struggling through the Great Depression . (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Mafia: Definitive Edition received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 81% of critics. IGN gave the game 8/10, writing: "Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Mafia: Definitive Edition features excellent performances from its new cast, a fantastic driving model, and a beautiful… (Wikipedia)
- 2020
After Lincoln Clay's surrogate family, the black mob, is betrayed and killed by the Italian Mafia, Lincoln builds a new family and blazes a path of revenge through the Mafioso responsible. (Steam)
Plot
Setting Set nearly two decades after its predecessor, Mafia III takes place during the late 1960s, within the fictional U. S. city of New Bordeaux. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Mafia III received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator platform Metacritic . Critics praised the story, characters, and darker themes, but criticized the repetitive gameplay and the presence of numerous technical issues. Alex Donaldson of VG247 gave the game a mixed review, writing, " Mafia III features one of my [favorite] video game stories of the year, some gorgeous presentation, an amazing soundtrack and… (Wikipedia)
Mafia, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Mafia vs other series
How Mafia stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Mafia vs Saints Row, Mafia vs Car Mechanic Simulator, Mafia vs Red Faction, Mafia vs Burnout Paradise, Mafia vs Euro Truck Simulator, Mafia vs Forza Horizon, Mafia vs Jurassic World Evolution, Mafia vs Metal Gear, Mafia vs Project CARS, Mafia vs RAGE, Mafia vs Subnautica, Mafia vs Transport Fever, Mafia vs Universe Sandbox
Common questions
How many Mafia games are there?
We hold 3 Mafia games in the catalogue, released between 2011 and 2020. 3 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.
Which Mafia game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Mafia II (Classic) rates highest at 8.1. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.
What order should I play the Mafia games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2011 to 2020. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
More franchises
Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.