Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s second open beta weekend wrapped up with a peak of just over 113,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB figures reported by TheGamer. That number sits just under the 115,145 peak logged the week before, during the pre-order-only early access beta, but the open beta held onto its audience far better. It stayed near 100,000 concurrent players in its closing 24 hours, compared with a drop to around 60,000 in the final stretch of the early access weekend.
The catch: Steam’s review score did not move. Modern Warfare 4’s beta sat at a “Mixed” rating through both test weekends, with 45 percent of Steam reviews landing negative, TheGamer reported, unchanged from one weekend to the next. With Infinity Ward’s shooter now just two weeks from its October 23, 2026 launch, the beta weekend leaves Activision with a familiar problem heading into October: a stable player base that still has not been won over.
Don't miss new tech stories on Google
Add Tech Insider once in the Google app and our stories appear in your news suggestions.
What happened in the Modern Warfare 4 open beta
Modern Warfare 4’s beta ran across two separate weekends. The first was gated behind a pre-order, running from August 21 to August 25, 2026. The second was the true open beta, a full five-day window free to download for anyone on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2, running from August 28 through September 1. Activision set the bar for Weekend Two deliberately low, requiring zero pre-order codes to get in, and opened beta preloading at 9:00 a.m. PT on August 26 so players could have the download finished before the servers went live. Activision’s own beta page states plainly that “the Open Beta is available for all players from August 28th – September 1st,” while a separate company blog post confirms the open beta began “at 10:00 AM PT, Friday August 28 for players on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2.”
Infinity Ward used the open weekend to widen what players could touch. Weekend one offered six multiplayer maps spread across nine game modes, plus a surprise single-player campaign mission called “Entrenched.” Weekend two added more maps and modes along with “Zodiac,” a new Warzone Resurgence map, giving the open beta a broader test of multiplayer, a slice of the campaign, and battle royale in the same build for the first time in the franchise’s history. Per Activision’s own beta breakdown, the backbone of that playlist was core 6v6 maps and modes, expanded for the open weekend with the large-scale Ground War: Combat Outpost and a mode called Kill Block.
Steam concurrent players, by the numbers
SteamDB tracks concurrent players, not downloads, so the 113,000 figure reflects simultaneous Steam users rather than total install counts across every platform. Still, it is the only hard, third-party number available for Modern Warfare 4’s beta performance, and it tells a specific story: participation barely changed between the gated and open weekends, while retention improved noticeably.
| Metric | Early access weekend (Aug 21-25) | Open beta weekend (Aug 28-Sep 1) |
|---|---|---|
| Steam all-time peak CCU | 115,145 | ~113,000 |
| CCU in final 24 hours | ~60,000 | ~100,000 |
| Player drop-off within 24 hours | Nearly 50% | Significantly smaller, per TheGamer |
| Steam review sentiment | Mixed, 45% negative | Mixed, 45% negative |
| Access requirement | Pre-order or code | Open to all players |
The headline takeaway from TheGamer’s reporting is that the open beta “actually didn’t manage to reach a new CCU despite being available to more players,” landing about 2,000 below the gated weekend’s 115,145 peak. That is a mild surprise on its face. Removing the pre-order wall should, in theory, pull in a larger crowd. Instead, the number held roughly flat while the retention curve flattened out considerably, suggesting the early access crowd was already close to the ceiling of players actively interested in trying the beta on Steam specifically.
Why the review score is stuck at 45 percent negative
Steam’s “Mixed” tag kicks in once recent reviews land roughly between 40 and 69 percent positive, and Modern Warfare 4’s beta sat right in the lower half of that band for both test weekends. The 45 percent negative share did not shift between weekend one and weekend two, which is notable given how different the two populations were: one group had pre-ordered the game and presumably arrived more favorably disposed, while the open weekend pulled in a broader mix of curious, skeptical, and franchise-fatigued players.
That consistency cuts two ways for Activision and developer Infinity Ward. On one hand, it means the complaints are not simply a function of pre-order buyers being harsher critics than open beta visitors. On the other, it means opening access did not meaningfully soften the backlash either, which usually happens when a beta’s early complaints come from a narrow, vocal subset rather than the broader base.
Early access vs. open beta: what actually changed
The clearest improvement between the two weekends is retention, not acquisition. During the pre-order weekend, Modern Warfare 4 lost close to half its concurrent player count within 24 hours, a steep decline for a beta meant to build launch hype. During the open weekend, the drop-off was far gentler, holding near 100,000 concurrent players deep into the test window rather than sliding toward 60,000.
Some of that difference is structural. Pre-order players had a full extra week to burn through the beta’s content before the second weekend even began, so a chunk of that early drop-off likely reflects players finishing what they wanted to test rather than abandoning the game outright. Even so, the gap between a 50 percent and a markedly smaller drop-off in the same 24-hour window is large enough that it reads as a genuine signal, not just scheduling noise.
Platforms confirmed for Modern Warfare 4
Modern Warfare 4 marks a platform cutoff for the Call of Duty franchise. For the first time, Activision is not releasing a Call of Duty mainline entry on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Confirmed platforms are Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2, with Activision’s own documentation treating the Nintendo Switch 2 as the newest supported platform generation in that lineup, a machine that only launched its own major firmware update cycle this year, a sign of how central the Switch 2 has become to the current console lineup.
| Platform | Beta access | Full release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC (Steam) | Yes, both weekends | October 23, 2026 | Only platform with public concurrent-player data |
| PC (Battle.net) | Yes, both weekends | October 23, 2026 | Install via Battle.net client, per Blizzard’s own beta guide |
| Xbox Series X|S / Xbox on PC | Yes, both weekends | October 23, 2026 | No Xbox Game Pass day-one release this year |
| PlayStation 5 | Yes, both weekends | October 23, 2026 | No PS4 version produced |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | Yes, both weekends | October 23, 2026 | First mainline Modern Warfare entry on a Nintendo platform in years |
| Xbox One / PlayStation 4 | Not offered | Not releasing | First mainline Call of Duty to skip last-gen consoles |
Pricing and editions: standard vs. Vault Edition
Modern Warfare 4’s Standard Edition is priced at $69.99, in line with the rest of the current console generation’s pricing for major first-party shooters. The Vault Edition runs $99.99 and bundles the base game with the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack, the Special Forces Operator Pack, a Signature Weapon Collection, one season of BlackCell, and a DMZ Deployment Bonus. Returning players eligible for a loyalty discount can bring the Vault Edition down by roughly 10 percent, to around $89.99.
Pre-ordering either edition also unlocks Campaign Early Access starting October 16, a full week ahead of the October 23 global release, giving early buyers a head start on the single-player story before multiplayer and Warzone go live for everyone.
| Edition | Price | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Edition | $69.99 | Base game on all six confirmed platforms |
| Vault Edition | $99.99 | Base game plus Hostile Alliance Operator Pack, Special Forces Operator Pack, Signature Weapon Collection, one season of BlackCell, and a DMZ Deployment Bonus |
| Vault Edition (loyalty discount) | ~$89.99 | Same contents as Vault Edition, roughly 10% off for eligible returning players |
Modern Warfare 4 launch countdown: every key date
With the full release now inside a two-week window, here is the complete Modern Warfare 4 timeline in one place, from the August 26 preload opening at 9:00 a.m. PT and the first beta weekend through to the October 23, 2026 global launch Activision has confirmed:
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| August 21-25, 2026 | Pre-order-only early access beta (Steam peak: 115,145 CCU) |
| August 28-September 1, 2026 | Open beta, free on all six platforms (Steam peak: ~113,000 CCU) |
| October 16, 2026 | Campaign Early Access unlocks for pre-order customers |
| October 23, 2026 | Full global launch across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2 |
As of October 2026, that puts Campaign Early Access about a week out and the full release two weeks out, with the beta’s 113,000-player peak and flat 45 percent negative Steam score standing as the most recent hard data points until launch-week charts arrive.
No day-one Game Pass, a first for the franchise
Modern Warfare 4 breaks a run of Game Pass day-one launches. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members cannot access the game at launch and were also excluded from early access to the beta, a reversal from recent Call of Duty entries that shipped directly into the subscription on day one. Game Pass inclusion is reportedly being pushed back to roughly a year after release, with eligible Game Pass members instead offered a discount toward the Vault Edition rather than free access.
That shift matters for how the beta’s player numbers should be read. Without a Game Pass pipeline feeding casual subscribers into the test, the entire beta population on every platform had to actively choose to download and install Modern Warfare 4, whether through a pre-order or, for the open weekend, a direct download. That makes the roughly 113,000 Steam peak a reasonably clean signal of organic interest rather than a number inflated by frictionless subscription access.
How this compares to last year’s Call of Duty beta and launch
Modern Warfare 4’s roughly 113,000 Steam peak lands close to where Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 settled a year earlier. SteamCharts data reported by Tech4Gamers and Dexerto shows the shared Call of Duty Steam app hit a 99,072 concurrent-player beta peak ahead of Black Ops 7’s launch, then peaked at 100,332 concurrent players on November 16, 2025, shortly after the game’s November 14 release. For context, Black Ops 6 had opened far stronger the year before that, reaching 315,334 concurrent Steam players during its launch weekend, a figure Black Ops 7 fell roughly 70 percent short of, according to Tech4Gamers’ analysis of the launch data.
Measured against that backdrop, Modern Warfare 4’s beta numbers look stable rather than alarming: roughly in line with Black Ops 7’s own beta and launch-weekend figures, but nowhere near the scale Black Ops 6 managed at its peak. It also does not yet show the kind of sharp single-year decline that hit the franchise between Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7. Whether Modern Warfare 4 can hold near its beta numbers at launch, the way Black Ops 7 roughly did, or whether it slides further, will not be clear until the October 23 launch-weekend charts are in.
What the beta data means for the October 23 launch
Beta concurrent-player counts are not a reliable predictor of total sales, since they measure one platform’s simultaneous logins rather than units sold across six platforms. But they are a reasonable proxy for hype and goodwill heading into launch, and on that score Modern Warfare 4 enters October in a middling position: stable curiosity, unresolved complaints. A flat 45 percent negative score across two different beta populations is the kind of signal publishers typically treat as a pattern rather than a fluke, since it survived a major shift in who was allowed to play.
The lack of day-one Game Pass access raises the stakes further. Previous entries could lean on subscription numbers to pad engagement metrics even when reviews were lukewarm. Modern Warfare 4 does not have that cushion at launch, so its October 23 performance on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Battle.net, and Switch 2 will need to come from direct purchases and pre-orders rather than a built-in Game Pass audience.
What platform holders and the publisher have said
Activision’s official messaging around the beta has been straightforward about access and timing rather than addressing the review sentiment directly. The publisher’s beta page states that “the Open Beta is available for all players from August 28th – September 1st,” and its blog confirms that “the Modern Warfare 4 Beta is downloaded separately through your platform’s digital storefront,” distinguishing it from games that fold the beta into an existing install. The same materials pin the open beta’s start to 10:00 a.m. PT on August 28, 2026, with preloading available from 9:00 a.m. PT on August 26, and confirm the full game’s October 23, 2026 release, all without once touching the Steam review score.
Blizzard, which operates the Battle.net storefront alongside Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch 2 as one of Modern Warfare 4’s six launch platforms, published its own install walkthrough for PC players, instructing them to “open Battle.net, select Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, choose the Beta version if prompted, and click Install.” A separate Battle.net news post reiterated the same start time given by Activision, noting that “the Open Beta begins at 10:00 AM PT, Friday August 28 for players on Battle.net.”
Neither Activision nor Blizzard has published a statement addressing the 45 percent negative review share directly, and Infinity Ward has not issued a public response to the SteamDB figures reported by TheGamer. That silence is not unusual this far out from launch; publishers in this position typically wait for a post-beta patch cycle before commenting on reception.
Five predictions for Modern Warfare 4’s launch window
1. Launch-weekend Steam CCU lands between 150,000 and 250,000. That range would represent a meaningful jump over the beta’s 113,000 peak, consistent with how launch weekends typically outperform betas, while still falling well short of Black Ops 6’s 315,334 high-water mark.
2. The Steam review score improves modestly after launch patches but stays short of “Mostly Positive.” A flat 45 percent negative share across two betas suggests structural complaints, likely tied to gameplay feel or monetization, that a day-one patch is unlikely to fully resolve.
3. Nintendo Switch 2 becomes a talking point for performance comparisons. As the newest and least powerful of the six confirmed platforms, expect early benchmark and resolution comparisons once Switch 2 review code is available.
4. Vault Edition loyalty discount uptake becomes a bigger deal than usual. With no day-one Game Pass safety net, the roughly 10 percent loyalty discount toward the $99.99 Vault Edition is likely to be more heavily promoted by Activision in the final weeks before October 23 than in prior launch cycles.
5. Game Pass inclusion, once it lands around a year post-launch, triggers a secondary player-count spike. Based on how Game Pass has historically boosted engagement for other Activision and Xbox titles, Modern Warfare 4’s eventual Game Pass arrival should produce a visible bump in concurrent players well after the initial launch window fades.
The bigger picture for Activision and the Call of Duty franchise
Modern Warfare 4 arrives at a moment when Call of Duty’s year-over-year numbers have been trending down, not up. Black Ops 7’s launch peak of 100,332 concurrent Steam players was roughly 70 percent below Black Ops 6’s 315,334 opening-weekend figure, according to Tech4Gamers. A beta that lands in the same neighborhood as Black Ops 7’s own numbers, rather than rebounding toward Black Ops 6 territory, suggests Activision has not yet found a way to reverse that slide through marketing or beta access changes alone.
At the same time, the retention improvement between the gated and open beta weekends is a genuinely useful signal for Infinity Ward’s design team. Players who got in during the open weekend stuck around far longer than the pre-order crowd did the week before, even with the same mixed review sentiment attached. That is the kind of split finding that usually shapes what gets prioritized in post-launch patches: Activision has concrete evidence that the content itself can hold an audience, even while a sizable chunk of that same audience keeps rating the beta negatively on Steam.
The franchise’s broader platform strategy is also shifting in ways that go beyond this one beta weekend. Dropping Xbox One and PlayStation 4 support outright, while adding Nintendo Switch 2 as a launch platform, mirrors how other publishers have handled the generational handoff, and ties into wider questions about how games perform when streamed or played through newer hardware rather than built around legacy consoles, a dynamic also playing out in services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce NOW, both of which have had to adapt their own platform priorities as hardware generations shift under them.
Steam’s storefront pressure adds another layer
Modern Warfare 4 will also be competing for visibility inside a Steam storefront that has quietly rewritten how games surface to players this year, a change that affects every major release jockeying for attention on the platform, not just annual shooter sequels. A stuck-at-45-percent review score matters more in that environment than it might have in prior years, since discoverability increasingly depends on review sentiment rather than raw wishlist counts alone.
That storefront dynamic sits alongside a broader wave of major PC and console releases competing for the same players this fall, from Witcher 3’s remastered relaunch topping 120,000 concurrent players with a 94 score, to graphics-forward titles like Control Resonant pushing DLSS 4.5 performance numbers on the latest RTX hardware. Modern Warfare 4 is not launching into an empty release calendar, and its October 23 numbers will be read in the context of everything else players have to choose from that week.
What to watch between now and October 23
Three things are worth tracking as Modern Warfare 4 approaches launch. First, whether Infinity Ward issues any public response to the review sentiment, something neither Activision nor the studio has done yet according to currently available reporting. Second, whether Campaign Early Access, opening October 16 for pre-order customers, generates its own concurrent-player data a week before the full launch, giving an earlier read than the October 23 numbers alone. Third, whether the roughly 10 percent Vault Edition loyalty discount meaningfully shifts how many returning players opt for the premium tier without a day-one Game Pass option pulling casual players in for free.
None of those three data points will fully resolve the tension sitting inside the beta numbers right now: a player base that is sticking around longer than it did a year ago, attached to a review score that has not budged an inch.
FAQ: Modern Warfare 4 open beta and launch
When did the Modern Warfare 4 open beta run?
The open beta, available to all players without a pre-order, ran from August 28 to September 1, 2026, following a pre-order-only early access weekend from August 21 to August 25.
How many people played the Modern Warfare 4 beta?
Steam’s concurrent-player tracker, SteamDB, recorded an all-time peak of roughly 113,000 players during the open beta weekend, according to TheGamer’s reporting, just under the 115,145 peak recorded during the early access weekend.
What review score did the Modern Warfare 4 beta get on Steam?
The beta carried a “Mixed” rating on Steam throughout both test weekends, with 45 percent of reviews landing negative in each weekend, per TheGamer, and that share had not moved as of October 2026.
What platforms is Modern Warfare 4 releasing on?
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, Battle.net, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is the first mainline Call of Duty entry not releasing on Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
How much does Modern Warfare 4 cost?
The Standard Edition is priced at $69.99. The Vault Edition is $99.99 and includes the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack, Special Forces Operator Pack, a Signature Weapon Collection, one season of BlackCell, and a DMZ Deployment Bonus, with eligible returning players getting roughly a 10 percent loyalty discount.
Is Modern Warfare 4 on Xbox Game Pass at launch?
No. For the first time in the franchise, Modern Warfare 4 is not included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. Game Pass inclusion is reportedly delayed to roughly a year after the October 23, 2026 release.
When does Modern Warfare 4 fully release?
October 23, 2026, across all six confirmed platforms — about two weeks away as of early October 2026. Pre-order customers get Campaign Early Access starting October 16, one week ahead of the global launch.
How does this compare to last year’s Call of Duty beta?
Modern Warfare 4’s roughly 113,000 Steam beta peak is in a similar range to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s reported 99,072 beta peak and 100,332 launch-weekend peak, according to SteamCharts data cited by Tech4Gamers and Dexerto, though both fall well short of Black Ops 6’s 315,334 launch-weekend high.
