It’s almost time for a new Call of Duty game, and that means discourse is right around the corner. The Modern Warfare 4 beta has become a catalyst for online debate, whether you’re hating its faster TTK or loving its decision to step away from Omnimovement. But perspectives aside, there’s one thing that doesn’t lie: numbers.
According to SteamDB, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta reached an all-time peak of 115,145 concurrent players during its 17-day run. The beta ended on Tuesday September 1, meaning there are no useful daily or weekly figures available now, but its peak still puts it comfortably ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
When Black Ops 7 launched in November 2025, Eurogamer reported it reached a peak of around 100,000 concurrent Steam players. Modern Warfare 4 therefore managed roughly 15,000 more players at once, despite its figure coming from a limited-time beta rather than the full release.
Call of Duty’s two main sub-series have spent years battling for the spotlight, but this time Modern Warfare has managed to get one over on Black Ops before its game has even properly arrived. There’s an important asterisk attached to these numbers, though.
Steam isn’t the only place where people play Call of Duty. Black Ops 7 is also available on PlayStation and Xbox, as well as Battle.net and the Xbox PC app, while Modern Warfare 4 will presumably have the same broad audience. Steam figures therefore can’t tell us how many people are actually playing each game across the entire player base.
But does Infinity Ward have the juice this year? I’d like to think so, but honestly, Call of Duty is becoming more and more tired. 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare cut my teeth with online multiplayer in the PlayStation 3 era, introducing me to lifelong friends and a passion for FPS games.
Aside from a few decent entries since then, the heyday of CoD has never really returned. Will Modern Warfare 4 keep long-time players engaged post-launch? We’ll find out in October.
