The Second Rise of Call of Duty

We’re all familiar with CoD… If you’re not, you’re probably living under a rock. It’s first rise came with the release of CoD Black Ops II in 2012. The single-player campaign was not the most compelling, but the multiplayer function made Black Ops 2 a genuinely good time. Unfortunately, this was also the beginning of a big decline for the franchise.

It’s no secret that fan reception for other titles like Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III, and Infinite Warfare were not widely popular. Was it because of graphics, storylines, or functionality that made the sales dip dramatically? It was probably all of the above, but what really matters is that CoD made a major comeback with the release of CoD Modern Warfare in 2019. While WWII’s release in 2017 seemed to be a strong push in the right direction, and 2018’s Black Ops IV introduced the player community to a new battle royale mode, it was 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot that really brought CoD back to life.

Modern Warfare introduced Warzone, which is a free-to-play battle royale video released on March 10, 2020 for Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Microsoft Windows. While the game is part of the 2019 title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it does not require the purchase of the game to play. Warzone allows online multiplayer combat among 150 players, set in the fictional city of Verdansk, which is loosely based on Donetsk city in Eastern Ukraine, on day 96 of Operation: Rapid Sunder. The game features both cross-platform play and cross-platform progression between both games.

The game features three main modes: Plunder, Realism and Battle Royale. Warzone also introduces a new in-game currency system called cash, which is used at buy stations in and around Verdansk. Players are able to use cash to purchase items like killstreaks and gas masks. At launch, Warzone only offered Trios, a squad capacity of three players. However, in the recent, free, content updates, Solos, Duos and Quads have all been added to the game. 

While this is a game changing feature for several players, it is safe to assume that with COVID-19 circling the world and quarantines having been in place, more people have become obsessed with the game. It is a way for people to connect with their friends, and to have a good time with other people when they are forced to stay in their homes. Although the update times suck and can take upwards of 12 hours, people don’t have anything else to do, so they patiently waited for their favorite game to update so they could play with their friends again.  

Warzone surpassed over 60 million downloads in the first two months and Modern Warfare 2019 has brought in an incredible $1 billion in global sales!