Take-Two Interactive announced that Mafia III was the fastest selling game in the history of its subsidiary 2K Games. Take two reported that the crime-family themed action-adventure game had shipped 4.5 million copies in its first week since it was launched, breaking the 2K Games record.
According to the newspaper The Washington Post and gaming news sites Gamasutra, VG247, Polygon, and VideoGamer, video game publisher Take-Two Interactive announced that Mafia III had sold-in 4.5 million copies during its first week in release. Take-two revealed that the number was more than any other game had shipped in its first week of release in the entire history of its subsidiary 2K Games.
The record number is already nearly half of what Borderlands 2 sold, which was 10 million copies, the highest number of copies sold in 2K Games history. Mafia III performance in its first week bested the first week numbers of 2K Games' franchises, Bioshock, Borderlands, and even the blockbuster NBA 2K series. Mafia III also broke the record for best first week performance for the Mafia franchise by 58.7 percent, beating Mafia II, which was released on Aug. 2010.
The announcement of the record was made during Take-Two's most recent quarterly earnings report marking the end of the second fiscal quarter. In reporting its Q2 2017 financial results, Take-Two said that the game, developed by Hanger 13, had shipped 4.5 million units to retailers as well as digitally.
The 4.5 million figure represents copies that were sold-in to retailers rather than sold-through to actual paying customers. Sell-in means the copies are shipped to retailers but not yet purchased. Sell-through means that copies are actually bought by consumers. This shows that there is still no information on how many actual players bought a copy of Mafia III, however the record number may still be significant to game industry watchers.
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