Hearts of Iron III
Released Aug 2009
Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.
72% positive · 6,307 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to buy
Steam $9.99
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Evaluation
Hearts of Iron III launched on August 7, 2009 and received a substantial post-launch content run, including numerous sprite packs, a music pack, a sound pack, and a major expansion — Their Finest Hour — along with the Axis Minors and Italian Vehicle Packs, the last of which are dated July 30, 2013. All 15 listed DLC items have been released, with no unreleased content remaining on the store.
After July 2013, developer communications shifted entirely to promoting Hearts of Iron IV, with the HoI III news feed used to cross-post HoI4 development diaries from late 2014 through mid-2016. The only posts concerning HoI III itself after that point were two security patches in February and May 2020, which fixed Lua vulnerabilities and explicitly noted they changed nothing in the game's content or experience.
There have been no announcements of new content, roadmaps, or future updates for Hearts of Iron III since 2013. The security patches are purely maintenance work, not content development. The game launched its successor (Hearts of Iron IV) in 2016, and Paradox has clearly moved on. Hearts of Iron III is a complete, fully-released product with all its content shipped.
Evidence
Axis Minors Vehicle Pack released — one of the last two DLC items with a confirmed release date, both dated July 30, 2013
Italian Vehicle Pack released on July 30, 2013 — all 15 listed DLC items now carry a released status with no unreleased content remaining
Content
15 of 15 released · no outstanding content
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
Paradox Interactive
Achievements
—
Platform
Windows, macOS
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Unsupported
Players
Single-player · Multiplayer · Co-op
About this game
Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.
Features:
Features:
- Play as any nation from 1936 to 1948, more than 150 countries to choose from.
- Control the oceans with aircraft carriers, submarines and battleships and use your air force to defend your skies, support your naval and ground forces, and to bomb your enemies
- Thousands of historically accurate real-world military commanders and politicians.
- Realistic military command AI with unprecedented levels of interaction
- In-depth diplomatic and political system.
- Historical accuracy combined with an unparalleled level of freedom of choice
- More than 10,000 land provinces makes the game five times more detailed than HoI2 and the most detailed depiction of World War 2 ever made.
- Customize your divisions in detail with more than 20 types of brigades
- New economic system makes it possible to buy weapons from abroad.
- Mobilization and reserves gives the option of surprise attacks, Blitzkrieg made real.
- Government-in-exile makes it possible to continue to struggle from abroad with underground movements and uprisings against the oppressing power.
- Strategic warfare system makes it more important to defend the skies and oceans against foreign attacks; leaving cities open to enemy bombing will now be devastating.
- A completely new intelligence system, with several types of intelligence sources, makes it possible to get information about enemy reserves and troop movements.
- Assign troops to "theatres" on the map to fight two-front wars more successfully.
- The new AI system and more detailed map will allow for more strategic decisions.
- Flexible technology system with hundreds of categories, where major powers get their own unique attributes.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 28, 2026
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