Modern Warfare 4 Is Out, and the Campaign Is Winning People Back
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched today to the best Steam reception the series has seen in over a decade — a campaign sitting at 94 percent positive, a first Nintendo appearance in 13 years, and a credits tribute to co-creator Vince Zampella.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is out today, October 23, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2 — and for once, the launch story is goodwill. Multiplayer servers opened for everyone this morning, following a staggered rollout that gave digital pre-orders the campaign on October 16 and the returning DMZ extraction mode on October 20. Infinity Ward's latest is not on PS4 or Xbox One; this is a current-gen-only Call of Duty.
The number everyone's watching is the Steam rating. The campaign hit 92 percent positive from more than 3,400 reviews during early access and has since climbed to around 94 percent — the best Steam showing for the series in over a decade, above every entry since the Black Ops III era. The contrast with last year's Black Ops 7, sitting at roughly 39 percent positive, is stark. One caveat before the victory lap: every one of those reviews is for the campaign. The multiplayer verdict starts today.
The campaign itself closes out the rebooted Modern Warfare storyline that began in 2019. Sixteen missions, roughly six hours, split between Captain Price operating off-book and Private Park, a young South Korean soldier caught in a North Korean invasion of the peninsula, with stops in New York, Paris and Mumbai and a villain played by Mads Mikkelsen. Critics have landed at an 84 on Metacritic — the deepest praise is for DMZ, the most common complaint is that the campaign is over too soon.
The Switch 2 version is its own story: the first Call of Duty on a Nintendo console in more than 13 years. It offers two upscaling options, NVIDIA DLSS and Filmic SMAA, and Digital Foundry found the DLSS mode produces cleaner edges and sharper textures. Nintendo Life scored the Switch 2 version a 9 out of 10.
The credits carry the moment that will outlast the launch numbers. The end credits open with a series of In Memoriam cards, including one that reads "In memoriam — Vince Zampella," the Call of Duty co-creator and Infinity Ward co-founder who died in December 2025 at 55.
One more break from recent habit: MW4 is not on Game Pass at launch, after Black Ops 6 and 7 both arrived day one. Xbox currently lists it as not joining the service until Holiday 2027. The campaign has won back the skeptics — the open question is whether the multiplayer can hold them.