There is much we could say to say about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but we have already said it here.
Instead, let's focus on how many people are playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2024, and more importantly, does it have a future, and if so, what does that future look like?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) is surprisingly active. During off-peak hours, I found full lobbies for most multiplayer playlists in less than a minute and full ground war lobbies in around 90 seconds.
While the PvE mode Spec Ops is not doing as well as the PvP playlists, and players should be prepared to wait during off-peak hours, a sizable number of players are still interested in the mode.
However, as I said, it requires substantially more patience than the multiplayer mode, which essentially feels as active as ever, with only a slight increase in wait times in 2024 compared to playing in 2020.
Overall, thanks to being the first Call of Duty game to embrace full crossplay support and the last Call of Duty specially optimised for 8th-generation consoles, it seems a sizable amount of Call of Duty fans decided to hop off the train in 2020 and stick to Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019), despite Activision still supporting 8th-generation hardware as of 2024, with rumours of Call of Duty 2025, potentially being the last release to support the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Image credit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward.
Despite many 9th generation console owners wanting to leave the 8th generation behind, it seems that atleasta s far as Call of Duty is concerned, leaving the 8th generation behind has yet to be officially decided upon, despite eagerness by some developers within Treyarch to take full advantage of 8th-generation hardware and show off “what that can do when given a chance”, which I can only assume will be an era-defining evolution of the Zombie mode that will see a drastically higher number of enemies or perhaps more interactive environments.
It appears that higher-ups at Activision and Xbox are rightfully reluctant to leave up to 50% of their players behind.
However, with cloud streaming technology slowly becoming a viable alternative to localised installs and Call of Duty slated to appear on cloud services within 12 months, we may just see Activision choose to “rip off the bandage” and embrace the 9th generation fully for Call of Duty 2025.
Before you get too excited at the thought of playing a Call of Duty game freed from 8th-generation hardware, considering that Call of Duty2025 is rumoured to be a direct sequel to Black Ops 6, meaning that it will likely be built upon the same code base, much in the same way that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III started life as a premium expansion for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, before being sold as a standalone title, that “just happens” to share many asset packs, and a code base with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
Image credit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward.
When a title is doing as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, almost five years after release, especially when it has been superseded, not once, not twice, but soon to be five times by newer entries in the series, I see no reason why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will not still be playable five years from now, even if it is less active by that point,
That being said, based on how well it is doing as it heads towards its 5th anniversary, becoming “less active as time goes on” is only a likely future, and certainly not the only one. As I have said previously, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) is one of the best Call of Duty titles ever released, and it deserves every ounce of praise and good fortune that it receives.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is an excellent title that has aged superbly; while it’s not as cutting-edge as the very best-looking games in 2024, it still looks fantastic, is very active, has amazing gunplay and map design, and even has one of the best campaigns in the franchise’s 20+ year history. I fully recommend playing it in 2024 and beyond.
