Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Developer

Infinity Ward, with Beenox (PC) and Digital Legends (Nintendo Switch 2)^[1]

Publisher

Activision^[1]

Released

Oct 23, 2026^[2]

Platforms

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Battle.net, Steam, Xbox on PC), Nintendo Switch 2^[1]

Modes

Campaign (16 missions), Multiplayer (20 launch maps), DMZ (extraction, on Hajin)^[2][3]

Price

$69.99, Standard Edition on Steam^[10]

Metascore

85 from 43 critic reviews^[11]

Game Pass

Not until Holiday 2027^[6]

Overview

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, released worldwide on Oct 23, 2026.^[1][2] Activision presents it as three parts sold together: a story campaign, competitive multiplayer and DMZ, an extraction mode.^[1] It came out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, and was the first Call of Duty in 13 years with no PlayStation 4 or Xbox One version.^[1][16] It was also the first in the series on a Nintendo console since Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U.^[16] Activision marketed it under the tagline "Warfare Without Limits" and said it brings the long-running storylines of the rebooted Modern Warfare series to a breaking point.^[1] The Standard Edition sells for $69.99 on Steam as of Nov 7, 2026.^[10]

Development

Infinity Ward led development, with the PC version made in partnership with Beenox and the Switch 2 version built natively with Digital Legends.^[1] Additional work came from Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch.^[1] Digital Legends, which Activision Blizzard bought in 2021 for its mobile expertise, had helped ship Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.^[18] The Switch 2 release follows the binding 10-year agreement Microsoft signed with Nintendo in February 2023 to bring Call of Duty to its platforms.^[16] At a preview event the developers said they chose Korea as the main setting because Korean culture has spread around the world, and the campaign includes missions inside North Korea, new ground for the series.^[17] For combat, Infinity Ward built what it calls Ballistic Authority, a weapon-first technology stack that removes bloom from hipfire and rebuilds recoil, convergence and handling.^[1] The game was built for current consoles and PC only, and on PC it supports DLSS 4.5 and ray tracing in all three modes.^[1]

0:33 A return to big war In the first episode of Infinity Ward's From The Ward series, the developers describe the game as a return to large-scale war and to the roots of Call of Duty, with North Korea fighting the South.

Reveal and road to launch

Activision revealed the game on May 28, 2026, with its release date and platforms, and opened digital pre-orders the same day.^[1] It also announced that Warzone, the free battle royale, would stop taking new downloads on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from June 4 and stop working there when Season 1 began.^[1] In July, an episode of Infinity Ward's video series From The Ward about weapons drew complaints that heavy visual recoil and smoke hid targets, and the studio replied that it had seen the early conversations and would watch beta feedback.^[20] Before Gamescom, an official Call of Duty account removed a promotional image with odd details, which a social media representative called a temporary render published by mistake.^[21] Players also suspected generative AI imagery in beta maps, and Game Rant noted that the game's Steam disclosure already confirmed some use of such tools.^[21] The open beta ran on every platform, Switch 2 included, from Aug 28 to Sep 1, 2026, with multiplayer, the campaign mission Entrenched and Warzone Resurgence on the new map Zodiac.^[9]

Campaign

The campaign has sixteen missions set across the Korean Peninsula, Paris, New York and Mumbai.^[3] Players control Private Park Hyun Jun, a young South Korean soldier in his first combat, whose routine patrol becomes a fight for survival when North Korea launches a full-scale invasion that begins in the fictional Hajin City.^[1][3][4] A second thread follows John Price, the former leader of Task Force 141, who works outside the system after the assassination of General Shepherd and teams up with the Las Almas cartel to hunt an elusive global threat.^[4] Activision lists trench warfare in Korea, close-quarters fighting in New York, chases through Paris and SAS night raids in Mumbai among its settings.^[1] Digital pre-order buyers could play the whole campaign from Oct 16, 2026, a week before launch, and its missions unlock rewards for multiplayer and DMZ, including eight base Operators and Double XP tokens.^[3] GameSpot praised its visuals and the way its two stories intertwine, but found its final boss fights too brief.^[15]

0:29 The campaign trailer Activision's campaign trailer runs from the order to invade the South, through the fighting on the Korean front, to Price's uneasy alliance with the cartel.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer launched with 20 maps: 12 new 6v6 maps, four Gunfight maps, three Ground War maps and Kill Block, a modular training facility.^[2] Kill Block is assembled from sections that can form more than 500 configurations and changes between rounds; at launch it supported 3v3 and 10v10 Gunfight.^[1] The game shipped with over a dozen modes, 33 weapons, 33 Operators and progression to Level 55.^[5] It has two Prestige paths, a first for the series: Classic Prestige resets Create-a-Class unlocks in exchange for faster XP, while Regular Prestige keeps them.^[5][1] A redesigned Create-a-Class puts Operators, weapons, equipment and killstreaks into one loadout, and the Gunsmith adds Gunny, a set of ready-made builds, and Apex Attachments earned by fully leveling a weapon.^[1] Infinity Ward kept skill-based Classic matchmaking despite player criticism, citing data on retention, queue times and quit rates.^[19] Multiplayer creative director Joe Cecot told IGN that the priority was making sure matches are good ones.^[19]

4:28 How Kill Block works In the second episode of From The Ward, a developer who had long had Kill Block in mind explains how its three slabs are randomized every match to make a new map.

DMZ

DMZ, which Activision calls the definitive Call of Duty extraction experience, sends players alone or in squads into an exclusion zone to recover military technology, fight hostile forces and other players, and leave with whatever they carry.^[1] Its map, Hajin, has more than 60 named locations and a radiation storm that intensifies during a deployment.^[8] GameSpot called Hajin the largest map ever made for Call of Duty, bigger than Warzone's Verdansk, and described it as a fictional version of the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.^[15] The earlier DMZ was a free mode tied to Warzone; this one comes with the paid game, and Vault Edition owners get an extra Operator slot and starting gear, both of which GameSpot listed among its criticisms.^[15] Players who pre-ordered digitally could enter DMZ from Oct 20, 2026, three days before launch.^[6]

0:36 Why Hajin is a dead zone The DMZ Worldbuilder Trailer tells how a nuclear meltdown made the region uninhabitable, how North Korea came back for the weapons left under Hajin, and who the mercenaries in the zone are.

Platforms, editions and release

Modern Warfare 4 launched worldwide on Oct 23, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC through Battle.net, Steam and Xbox on PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.^[1][2] The Switch 2 version supports Joy-Con 2 mouse controls, gyro aiming, HDR and handheld play, with cross-play and cross-progression with the other platforms.^[9] Activision released the game as a standalone purchase and said it would not be included with Game Pass until Holiday 2027, while Black Ops 7, Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare III stayed on the service.^[6] Every digital pre-order, of either edition, came with campaign and DMZ early access and cosmetic bonuses.^[6] The Vault Edition adds Operator packs, five Signature weapons, one season of the BlackCell premium pass and a DMZ deployment bonus.^[2]

9:06 The Switch 2 verdict Nintendo Life's video review of the Switch 2 version closes with its verdict on how much of the game made it to Nintendo's console, ending on a score of 9 out of 10.

Reception

Critics received Modern Warfare 4 as a clear improvement on the entries before it.^[13][14] On launch day its PC Metascore stood at 84, against 65 for Black Ops 7, and Forbes contributor Paul Tassi wrote that it was the series' best Metacritic score since the original Modern Warfare 3.^[13][14] As of Nov 7, 2026, Metacritic showed a Metascore of 85 from 43 critic reviews, 95% of them positive, and a user score of 7.7 from 830 ratings.^[11] OpenCritic showed a Top Critic Average of 83, with 95% of critics recommending it, on the same day.^[12] Destructoid gave it 9 out of 10 and called its three full modes the series' best argument for a full-length development cycle.^[14] GameSpot scored it 8, singling out Kill Block and Hajin, and faulted killstreaks replacing scorestreaks and the end of free DMZ.^[15] On Steam, early access players rated it 84% positive on Oct 17, 2026, far above Black Ops 7.^[22]

Players and sales

Steam has no count for Modern Warfare 4 alone, because the game runs inside the shared Call of Duty app, which also supports Black Ops 7 and Warzone.^[26][22] Press reports quoting SteamDB put that shared app above 108,000 concurrent players on the first day of campaign early access and at 227,622 at launch, roughly double Black Ops 7's launch but below Black Ops 6's more than 315,000.^[22][23] A reading of the Steam Web API at 05:46 UTC on Nov 7, 2026 found 164,680 players in the shared app, a figure for all Call of Duty on Steam, not this game by itself.^[25] On Oct 27, Windows Central reported, citing TrueAchievements, that Modern Warfare 4 was down 32% on Xbox from Black Ops 7, and linked the gap partly to its absence from Game Pass.^[24] The same report said it was Steam's top seller at release and that Activision had published no sales figures.^[24] Tassi expected it to be 2026's second-best-selling game, behind Grand Theft Auto VI.^[13]

Season 1 and Warzone

Shipment, a small classic map, arrived on Oct 27 with a 24/7 playlist.^[5] Two Halloween modes came before the season: Possession, new, in which a player who eliminates an enemy takes over that enemy's place and loadout, and Infected.^[7] Activision scheduled Season 1 for midnight ET on Nov 6, 2026, two weeks after launch.^[7] It brings the 6v6 maps Backstab, Canyon and a reimagined Shoot House set in snowy North Korea, more maps at mid-season, and the X01 Black Site in DMZ.^[7] Kill Block gains a static Crash layout that opens it to more core modes.^[7] The first Battle Pass has 100 tiers and costs 1,100 COD Points, or 2,400 for a bundle.^[7] The season also makes Modern Warfare 4 the base of Warzone, which adds Hajin for battle royale and Zodiac for Resurgence.^[7] From the same day, Warzone no longer runs on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.^[1]

1. 2026-05-28 Activision reveals the game and opens pre-orders.^[1]
2. 2026-06-04 Warzone stops taking new downloads on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.^[1]
3. 2026-07-16 GameSpot reports the backlash over visual recoil in a From The Ward video.^[20]
4. 2026-08-28 The open beta begins on every platform, Switch 2 included, through Sep 1.^[9]
5. 2026-10-16 Campaign early access opens for digital pre-orders.^[3]
6. 2026-10-20 DMZ early access opens.^[6]
7. 2026-10-23 Worldwide launch.^[2]
8. 2026-10-27 Shipment is added with a 24/7 playlist.^[5]
9. 2026-11-06 Season 1 is scheduled to begin, moving Warzone onto Modern Warfare 4.^[7]