Early mortality remains a challenging therapeutic facet of the initial induction phase of intensive chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The impact of standard molecular evaluation and risk category of the European LeukemiaNet (ELN) 2017 classification model on early mortality has not been rigorously evaluated thus far. We reviewed the medical records of 320 consecutive adult patients with newly diagnosed AML treated with intensive induction chemotherapy in our center from 2007 to 2021. The median age was 56 years; 33 patients (10%) died during induction. Patient age, white blood cell count, hemoglobin level, platelet level, creatinine, uric acid, lactate dehydrogenase serum levels, and FLT3-ITD and CEBPA mutational status did not significantly impact early mortality. NPM1^mut patients had a lower likelihood of early death compared to NPM1^wt (5% versus 13%; p = 0.023) whereas patients with high-risk cytogenetic studies experienced higher rates of induction mortality compared with intermediate and favorable risk patients (20% versus 8 and 7%, respectively; p = 0.049). Adverse risk ELN 2017 was significantly more likely to die during induction compared with intermediate and favorable risk patients (20% versus 10 and 4%, respectively; p = 0.001). Patients treated in 2007–2011 experienced a significantly higher rate of induction death compared with patients in 2012–2021 (17% versus 8%; p = 0.039). Multivariate analysis confirmed adverse ELN 2017 [odds ratio (OR), 6.7; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.74–25.3; p = 0.006) and treatment timeframe (OR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.14–0.85; p = 0.019) as pivotal predictors of early mortality. ELN 2017 is a robust prognosticator of early mortality in intensively treated AML patients.