The return of Call of Duty: Warzone’s authentic map, Verdansk, seems to be doing its job of driving gamers again to the sport, on Steam at the very least. On Steam, Warzone and Black Ops 6 are packaged collectively contained in the overarching “Call of Duty” launcher–and participant numbers are spiking.
Call of Duty surged past 114,000 concurrent players on Steam at the moment, April 3, following the re-introduction of Verdansk to Warzone for the primary time since December 2021. That is the highest player count for Call of Duty in 2025 so far. It is nonetheless effectively beneath the all-time peak of 491,670 players from November 2022, nonetheless. At 114,000+ concurrent gamers, Call of Duty is the No. 8 hottest recreation on Steam at press time.
Warzone itself is a free-to-play recreation, but it surely’s not listed as such on Steam as a result of it is a part of the Call of Duty launcher that features paid titles like Black Ops 6. It is not clear how lots of the 110,000+ individuals taking part in Call of Duty on Steam are taking part in Warzone. Additionally unknown is how Warzone is acting on Xbox and PlayStation because the reintroduction of Verdansk.
Past the return of Verdansk, Black Ops 6’s new Season 3 replace is reside now with numerous new content material, together with extra weapons, maps, and modes.
Call of Duty appears to be banking on nostalgia to revive Warzone’s participant rely. A latest report mentioned if the arrival of Verdansk fails to retain present gamers and/or deliver again lapsed gamers, there might be no “Warzone 3.” (For what it is value, the present model of Warzone is a renamed model of Warzone 2.0). It is not clear what this implies, although, or how Activision might measure success.
Past Warzone, a brand new Call of Duty recreation is anticipated to launch in 2025, and it might be a Black Ops 2 sequel. It’s going to face stiff competitors available in the market, as Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming this fall. For context, Black Ops 6 was 2024’s best-selling recreation within the US.