Activision bids to win back Call of Duty fans with Modern Warfare 4
Call of Duty is trying to earn back trust.
Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl said the publisher was not happy with every aspect of last year's game and had heard fan feedback loud and clear. He spoke in an interview focused on the plan to win players over again with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The Game Business published the conversation on 15 October 2026.
The context is a hard year. Launch sales for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in Europe were 50% below the previous year's title. The game finished the year at No.5 in the United States, the lowest chart position for the series since 2008's World at War. Battlefield 6 finished as the best-selling shooter, games built around gun combat, of 2025 and ended a run at the top for Call of Duty stretching back to the mid-2000s. The Game Business
Player numbers tell a similar story. Monthly players were routinely around 40 million in 2024, then in the mid-20 million range in 2026, according to Ampere, a research organisation that tracks audiences. Numbers recovered to near 40 million after PlayStation ports of 2010's Black Ops and 2012's Black Ops 2.
Modern Warfare 4 is next. Activision first announced the game in May 2026. It will launch on 23 October 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, according to Activision. Call of Duty Blog Campaign Early Access, a chance to play the story mode before release, goes live on 16 October. Call of Duty Blog The story involves the DMZ in South Korea, the buffer zone between North and South.
The release follows four straight autumn launches: Modern Warfare 2 in 2022, Modern Warfare 3 in 2023, Black Ops 6 in 2024 and Black Ops 7 in 2025. The new interview also ranges across the series' relationship with Game Pass, Microsoft's subscription library, the decision to leave PlayStation 4 and Xbox One behind, a return to Nintendo, and sharing a release season with Grand Theft Auto 6. Leaving the older consoles means Modern Warfare 4 runs only on current hardware and PC, plus Nintendo's latest handheld-hybrid.
Bahl described GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4 as the two biggest games of the year. Video Games Chronicle
For fans, this means a familiar test. A new story, new multiplayer and a new push to keep players talking about what works, starting with the campaign a week before full launch.
