Is the new Call of Duty any good?
Whether the newest Call of Duty is "good" depends on which part of it you care about. Every yearly release is really three games in one, a short campaign, competitive multiplayer and usually Zombies or a co-op mode, and reviews often rate them very differently. Because the game changes a lot through seasons and patches, the best guide is recent player feedback, not launch-week scores.
How to judge a new Call of Duty
- Multiplayer: movement, map quality, time-to-kill and matchmaking. This is what most players spend hundreds of hours on.
- Campaign: usually 5–8 hours. Treat it as a bonus unless the reviews single it out.
- Zombies or co-op: Treyarch's Black Ops games are known for round-based Zombies; Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare games lean toward more realistic shooting and extraction modes like DMZ.
- Warzone integration: new weapons and maps usually carry over to the free-to-play battle royale.
- Performance and price: check whether your platform runs it well, and whether it is included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, which carried Black Ops 6 (2024) and Black Ops 7 (2025) at launch; Modern Warfare 4 (October 23, 2026) is not in Game Pass at launch and is planned for Holiday 2027. Lower Game Pass tiers do not include new CoD releases at launch.
Before you buy
- Read or watch reviews from a few weeks after launch, when servers and balance have settled.
- Try the free multiplayer weekends, or a Game Pass trial for the entries that are in Game Pass (not Modern Warfare 4 at launch).
- If you only want the battle royale, you do not need to buy anything: Warzone is free.
FAQ
Which Call of Duty is considered the best?
Fans most often name Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Black Ops II, but it is a matter of taste.
Which Call of Duty has the longest campaign?
Campaign lengths are similar across the series, mostly 5–8 hours; none is dramatically longer.
Which CoD is the most realistic?
The Modern Warfare games aim for a grounded, realistic tone, while Black Ops leans into Cold War conspiracy stories.
What Call of Duty is played the most?
Warzone and the current premium release usually have the most players, because Warzone is free and new seasons are shared with it.