The game
Games like Mafia Wars in 2026, and one set in the Three Kingdoms
, updated 4 minute readBy Gitkonek Studio
In short
Mafia Wars was a text RPG built on one loop, spending energy on jobs, collecting from properties, and fighting other players, and that loop still lives. Torn and Mob Wars La Cosa Nostra keep the crime setting on the browser. Warlords of the Three Kingdoms takes the same loop to 200 AD on iPhone and Android, with campaigns for jobs, territories for properties, and raids on real warlords for fights.
Mafia Wars is gone, and the thing that made it good is not.
Zynga closed it in 2016, several years after it had been one of the most played games on Facebook. What people remember is rarely a mission or a character. It is a rhythm: a bar of energy that refilled while you were busy, a list of jobs to spend it on, properties that paid out whether you were there or not, and a rival who had robbed you overnight. That rhythm is a design, and designs outlive the games that carried them.
The loop, stated plainly
Every game in this family is built from the same four parts.
- A regenerating resource. Energy, stamina, nerve: something you spend now and get back over time, so a session has a natural length and a natural reason to come back.
- Jobs. The thing you spend it on. Each one pays out a little and moves you along a ladder.
- Property. Income that accrues while the app is shut, and a reason to keep buying more of it.
- Other people. Fights, robberies, hit lists. The difficulty is made of humans rather than a designer’s guesses, which is why it never gets solved.
Graphics are not on the list. That is why the genre ran in a browser tab in 2009 and why it suits a phone now.
Where the loop lives now
A few games kept the crime setting and kept going.
Torn has been running in the browser since 2004 and is the deepest of them: a whole city of jobs, factions, markets and crime, with a community that has been playing it for years. If you want the most systems and do not mind a desk, it is the obvious choice.
Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra is the closest to Mafia Wars in feel: jobs, an arsenal, and fighting your way up the ranks against other players, on the web and on phones.
Newer indie mafia games appear every year, usually on the browser first. They are worth a look if the setting is what you miss.
The same loop in 200 AD
Warlords of the Three Kingdoms keeps the loop and swaps the setting for the end of the Han dynasty, when warlords carved up China and the names still famous today, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, Lu Bu, Cao Cao, were alive and fighting.
The parts map one to one.
- Jobs become campaigns. Ninety of them in nine chapters, following the chronicle from the Yellow Turban Rebellion onward. Each costs Energy and can be mastered for stars.
- Properties become territories and cities. Farmsteads, markets and more, each earning Copper every hour, and forty cities on a painted map of Han China to besiege, govern and garrison. Bank what they earn, or a raider takes it.
- The crew becomes a retinue. Sixty seven Generals, each with a portrait painted for the game and a line of real history. Your strongest ride with you into every fight.
- Fights become raids. Against real warlords near your level, for Copper and Honor. Put a price on a rival’s head, or claim a bounty someone else posted.
- The family becomes a Kingdom. At level five you swear to Wei, Shu or Wu, and every week the three Kingdoms go to war for Honor.
It is a text RPG in the strict sense: you read what happened, you do not watch it. A session is a few campaigns, a collection and a raid.
Which to pick
| Game | Setting | Where it runs | Pick it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torn | A modern crime city | Browser, with Torn PDA on phones | The deepest systems |
| Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra | The mob | Web and phones | The closest feel to Mafia Wars |
| Bootleggers | 1930s Prohibition | Browser, with a mobile version | A period crime setting |
| Warlords of the Three Kingdoms | China, around 200 AD | iPhone and Android | The loop on a phone, with history |
If you want the crime setting and the deepest systems, play Torn. If you want the closest thing to Mafia Wars itself, play Mob Wars. If you want the loop on your phone with history in place of the mob, join the waitlist for Warlords of the Three Kingdoms, or read what a text RPG is and which Kingdom to choose first. If it is the setting that draws you, here are the other Three Kingdoms games on phones, sorted by what you want from them.
Questions
Is Mafia Wars still playable?
No. Zynga closed the original Mafia Wars in 2016. What survives is the format, the energy, jobs and properties loop, which a number of games still use.
What made Mafia Wars work?
Short sessions with real decisions. You spent a regenerating resource on jobs, your properties earned while you were away, and the other players were the difficulty. None of that needs graphics, which is why it ran well in a browser tab and runs well on a phone.
What is the closest game to Mafia Wars today?
Mob Wars, La Cosa Nostra is the closest in feel, with jobs, an arsenal and fights against other players, on the web and on phones. Torn is deeper and lives in the browser. Warlords of the Three Kingdoms keeps the same loop on iPhone and Android and sets it in China around 200 AD.
Is Warlords of the Three Kingdoms a mafia game?
No. It keeps the loop and changes the setting. Jobs are campaigns through the Three Kingdoms chronicle, properties are territories that earn Copper, the mob is one of three Kingdoms, and the crew is a retinue of historical Generals.
Is it pay to win?
No. The Imperial Seal subscription makes Energy and Stamina refill faster and grants some Jade each day, but it adds nothing to attack or defense, and every player earns Jade from the daily orders.
When can I play it?
It is coming to iPhone and Android. Everyone on the waitlist gets one email the day it opens, with the link that claims the Founder's Seal.
Keep reading
- What is a text RPG, and why play one in 2026A text RPG tells its story in words and numbers rather than a rendered world. Here is what that buys you, and what it costs.
- The Five Tiger Generals of Shu: who they wereGuan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong. Who the Five Tiger Generals were, what each did, and why the title is the novel's.
- Who won the Three Kingdoms? None of the threeWei, Shu and Wu all lost. The Sima family took Wei from inside, founded the Jin dynasty in 266, and reunified China in 280. Here is how.