Warzone 2.0 Surpasses 450K Concurrent Players on Steam on Launch Day

Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 got a successful tie-in release after Modern Warfare 2 on 16th November 2022. The servers went live at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST, and at the same time, Warzone was renamed Warzone Caldera as intended, and Rebirth Island and Fortune’s Keep left the game for good. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 at launch was a huge success for Activision and Infinity Ward. 

In mere 3 days of its release, it had already bagged $800 Million and became the biggest entertainment opening of the year, followed by a $1 Billion sales mark in just 10 days. Not only that, as confirmed by Activision, Modern Warfare 2 became the biggest CoD launch across all platforms and shook the Steam Charts leaving all the games in the franchise behind. 

Well, Warzone 2.0, which was released as a free Battle Royal add-on for Modern Warfare 2, took the game to new highs; within only 2 hours after the servers went live, the concurrent players on Steam surged over 416K, already shattering all the records of concurrent players of any Call of Duty game. 

Still, it was not the end, and the game continues to go uphill and is currently sitting at a new all-time high of 452,281 concurrent players on Steam.

Undoubtedly, this is a clear message to the gaming industry that Call of Duty games are alive and well. A week before the official launch of Warzone 2.0, Activision and Infinity Ward held an in-person event where a limited number of Call of Duty streamers were invited to showcase the first official gameplay of Warzone 2.0 and the DMZ mode. 

The massive hype around the new extraction style game mode DMZ is the primary reason for the record-breaking numbers achieved by the game. As described by Activision:

DMZ is a dangerous, diverse and deep open world experience where players can choose their level of intensity. Even in its earliest form, the DMZ experience is built for the most hardcore completionists: with Faction Missions, Contracts, World Events, stocking up the Stash, helping out other squads (or causing chaos), breaking open locked areas, and much more– this living world has plenty to conquer on day one.

DMZ is just about land, loot, survival and exfil. Yet it is not that simple on the deadly map, Al Mazrah; enemies could be anywhere, and you always have to watch your back, protect your loot and extract. 

However, after some initial response to DMZ mode, Infinity Ward decided to release DMZ as a beta for the launch, which indicates that it is just the beginning and Call of Duty fans are well in for a treat in the future. As stated by Activision:

Activision’s expanded studios also continue to make strong progress on an innovative mobile experience that will extend Warzone to the largest and fastest-growing platform. Across the Call of Duty ecosystem, the teams are well positioned to support these launches [Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0] with substantial live operations, while also continuing development of new premium content planned for 2023 and beyond.

Also, there are a lot of rumors about post-launch content for Warzone 2.0 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Some of the rumors suggest a premium DLC pack and a new Rocket League Inspired game mode, CODball, for Modern Warfare 2. On top of these, Sledgehammer Games is also reportedly working on Premium Call of Duty content for 2023.

We hope that more details about these updates will be revealed soon. And it is safe to say that the players should buckle up their belts and be prepared as this will be long. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

What are your thoughts about this? Have you played Warzone 2.0 yet? Let us know in the comment section below.