- Release
- Friday 23 October 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Not on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One (callofduty.com's announcement, 28 May 2026).
- Early access
- The full Campaign from Friday 16 October for digital pre-orders of the Standard Digital or Vault edition (callofduty.com). Physical buyers are not included.
- Who made it
- Development led by Infinity Ward, published by Activision; Beenox on PC, Digital Legends on Switch 2, plus nine other Activision studios in the credits.
- Modes
- Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ. No Zombies mode appears anywhere in the official material.
- Played it
- Everyone, since launch on 23 October; the Campaign since 16 October and DMZ since 20 October for digital pre-orders. Reviews of the whole game, Multiplayer and DMZ included, were out by 23 October.
Confirmed by Activision's own posts
23 October 2026, one date everywhere
The announcement of 28 May 2026 gives a single global launch day and four platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Battle.net, Steam and Xbox on PC) and Nintendo Switch 2. It states twice that the game will not be on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
The whole campaign, a week early
The 12 June post says digital pre-orders and pre-purchases get Campaign Early Access from Friday 16 October. The Switch 2 post of 26 August is the one that spells out the scope: the full Campaign, finishable before launch day. Activision footnotes the date as subject to change.
Infinity Ward leads it
Every callofduty.com post ends with the same credit block: development led by Infinity Ward; PC led by Infinity Ward with Beenox; Switch 2 built natively by Infinity Ward with Digital Legends. Additional development from Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch. Ten assisting studios in all.
Three modes, named
Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ — an extraction mode set in an exclusion zone called Hajin. Warzone stays a separate free title but starts taking Modern Warfare 4 content and seasonal progression from Season 1.
Current generation only
Activision describes the game as built natively for current consoles and PC, and Infinity Ward co-studio head Jack O'Hara has said on the record why: supporting PS4-era hardware had reached the point where the team was optimising more than it was building.
Not on Game Pass at launch
Activision has since given a window: it joins Game Pass in Holiday 2027, with no exact date.
Two beta weekends happened
An early-access weekend from 21 to 25 August and an open weekend from 28 August to 1 September, the second on every platform including Switch 2. It carried a Campaign mission, a first for a Call of Duty beta.
What the previews and the beta actually showed
- Multiplayer. One preview played roughly 90 minutes of it at Infinity Ward, another two maps at a press event; the public betas ran six of the twelve launch maps.
- One Campaign mission. "Entrenched", a large-scale assault to stop a power station falling to the enemy, playable in both beta weekends.
- The movement rebuild. Activision published eight named mechanics; both hands-on previews confirmed in play that it is faster than Modern Warfare II but deliberately short of Treyarch's Omnimovement.
- Gunplay with bloom removed. Activision's line is that hipfire now goes where the weapon points; one hands-on preview called the audio, animation and feedback the strongest part of the demo.
- Apex Attachments, unlocked in the demo build. A hands-on preview listed several by function, including a shotgun with explosive rounds and a sniper rifle with side-mounted throwing knives.
- Kill Block, the reconfiguring map, running Gunfight at 3v3 and a new 10v10.
- Ground War: Combat Outpost at 24v24 on two maps, and Warzone Resurgence on a new map called Zodiac.
- The Campaign story, in trailers only. The Tokyo Game Show trailer of 17 September is the fullest look so far, and it is a trailer, not gameplay in anyone's hands.
Not announced, and worth not assuming
How long the Campaign is
16 missions. Activision has given no hour figure, and the reviews disagree: about six hours for PC Gamer, and just under six for Insider Gaming on the easiest difficulty; roughly seven for IGN; about eight for GameSpot and Polygon; GAMES.GG estimates 8–9 hours on normal and 14–16 hours for every trophy. Infinity Ward associate design director Alex Norris had called it probably the largest Modern Warfare campaign.
Install size on PS5 and Xbox
Activision has published no launch install size for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. PS5 has unofficial download sizes per pack: about 28.7 GB for the base pack, 42.2 GB for the Campaign, 20.8 GB for Multiplayer, 5.8 GB for the first DMZ pack, 19.6 GB of shared content and 42.0 GB for Warzone. The second DMZ pack is unlisted, so they add up to no confirmed total. Xbox has only estimates that disagree, so this page gives no figure. The official-channel numbers are the PC requirement, an SSD with 115 GB free, and Nintendo's eShop listing for Switch 2, at about 84.9 GB.
Resolution and frame-rate targets
PlayStation confirms 4K visuals, 120 Hz and VRR on PS5 and PS5 Pro, with no frame-rate figure for any mode. Activision says Performance Mode needs VRR on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S: without it, Campaign and DMZ stay at 60 Hz, and so does Warzone from Season 1. Its statement does not name Multiplayer. The Xbox store page carries only Microsoft's standard capability tags (4K Ultra HD, HDR10, 60 fps+, 120 fps), which are not a target for this game. On Switch 2, Digital Legends, the studio building that version, says multiplayer reaches 60 fps docked and about 44 fps handheld, and the Campaign runs at 30 fps. Independent measurements on Switch 2 put the Campaign at a stable 30 fps, Multiplayer at a 60 fps target that can fall into the high 40s, and DMZ at 40 fps on a 120 Hz TV, with dynamic resolution up to 900p with DLSS or 1080p with SMAA docked, and 720p handheld, with lows of 450p and 360p. On PC, Activision aims its recommended spec at 90 fps in multiplayer on High settings.
A Zombies mode
The announcement describes Campaign, Multiplayer and DMZ and stops there, and guides say outright that there is no Zombies mode of any kind. Activision has not said whether one could come later.
Campaign co-op
Not announced by Activision, whose posts describe the Campaign only in single-player terms. Two guides say it outright: the Campaign is single-player only, with no co-op.
When Game Pass gets it
Activision confirms it is not there at launch and puts it on Game Pass in Holiday 2027. The exact date is what has not been announced.
How big a squad is
Sources disagree. Activision says Squad Fill matches you with two other players, and Dexerto quotes the developers on "trios with trios": three. IGN says teams of up to four. Activision has not published a lobby size.
The ESRB rating
Settled since the first check: the ESRB rates it M (Mature 17+), for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language and Use of Drugs.
Cross-checked
Cross-checked and re-checked on 1 October 2026, and on 3 October 2026 against the Xbox store pages again and GoNintendo's interview with Digital Legends, against Activision's own posts on callofduty.com and support.activision.com, the Xbox store page, Xbox Wire, the PlayStation Blog, and the coverage of GameRant, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+, Game Informer, GamingTrend, Nintendo Life, Vandal, Eurogamer.es, GodisaGeek and Insider Gaming. On 3 October 2026 the Xbox store pages for console and Windows were read again: they no longer show the Treyarch, Raven developer credit or the Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate slots an earlier check found, only Activision Publishing as publisher, the game at $69.99 and the Vault Edition at $99.99. Re-checked on 21 October 2026 for the Campaign early access and its reviews, against PureXbox's round-up of the Campaign reviews, GuruGamer and Windows Central. Re-checked on 26 October 2026 against callofduty.com, GamesRadar+, VICE, IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, Game Informer and Dexerto. Not from a playthrough: checked against the sources above. Still to confirm in-game. Campaign length re-checked on 22 October 2026 against PC Gamer's review in progress, Insider Gaming's Campaign review and GAMES.GG's campaign-length guide. That the Campaign has no co-op is stated outright by Games Atlas's mission guide and Dexerto's Modern Warfare 4 wiki, read on 22 October 2026. Re-checked on 5 November 2026: the ESRB rating against esrb.org. The PS5 pack sizes rest on a single unofficial source, PlayStation Game Size, as reported by Beebom and Twisted Voxel. The Xbox size estimates disagree, and Twisted Voxel's carries no source. 4K, 120 Hz and VRR on PS5 rest on the PlayStation Blog as reported by GamingBolt, the VRR requirement on Activision's CODUpdates post as reported by GamerFuzion, and the Switch 2 measurements on Digital Foundry alone, as reported by Nintendo Everything. That there is no Zombies mode is stated outright by Insider Gaming, Dexerto and Gfinity.