While nearly every Call of Duty game tops the sales charts upon release, some entries stand head and shoulders above the rest. We wanted to narrow down the very best Call of Duty games, so we’ve ranked the best 11 games in the series–with more room to grow as new games are released and we reevaluate older entries.
The Call of Duty franchise has risen to be such a multi-faceted franchise that a dedicated Call of Duty launcher now houses all of its individual components. That’s where you can find the various single-player campaigns, the competitive multiplayer, the battle royale mode Warzone, and the co-op Zombies modes. Whatever your preference, there’s probably a Call of Duty experience to match. For the purposes of this ranking, we’re mostly referring to the distinct single-player campaigns, though their own individual twists on elements like multiplayer are important too.
Call of Duty has been not only a top seller for nearly two decades, but also the center of a tense legal fight between Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision raised concerns that it would gate access to the massively popular franchise, and the lengthy oversight process that ensued required Microsoft making several commitments about platform parity. The latest release, Black Ops 6, was included as part of Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription.
Check out our ranking of Call of Duty games below, and let us know your own favorites in the comments.
11. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
A sequel to the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot, 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is remembered for its thrilling campaign and excellent multiplayer. The story follows Task Force 141 and a Mexican special forces unit that team up to take down some bad guys in another globe-trotting story with memorable set pieces and white-knuckle firefights. In particular, fans enjoyed seeing Price, Gaz, Ghost, and Soap back in action, alongside new characters, too.
Esteemed studio Infinity Ward developed the game alongside Activision’s other network of Call of Duty studios. The multiplayer didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it honed in on what people loved about previous games, delivering a “classic” feel. Ground War returned, offering up Battlefield-style large-scale action in 32v32 matches, and the Invasion mode was a particularly bright spot for players who just wanted a huge Team Deathmatch mode.
In addition to earning plaudits from critics, the game was a massive commercial success, reaching $1 billion in sales faster than any previous Call of Duty game.
Read our Modern Warfare II campaign and multiplayer reviews.
10. Call of Duty: Vanguard
Call of Duty: Vanguard took players back to the era where the series built its foundation: WWII. While Vanguard didn’t reach the same heights as some other modern entries in the franchise, it did provide a welcome reprieve to the “modern” and futuristic entries we’ve seen in recent years. Vanguard was a well-rounded Call of Duty package, with moments of genuine brilliance in all three of its core gameplay modes: campaign, competitive multiplayer, and Zombies.
Like most Call of Duty games nowadays, the campaign was a brief but action-packed tour of combat told through multiple perspectives. Though not the strongest from a story perspective, Vanguard’s missions were varied and consistently entertaining. The multiplayer, which continues to expand, features an impressive mix of maps and game variants, which makes for an experience that has been fun since launch and will likely remain popular until the next Call of Duty game releases. The Zombies mode removed some of the clever puzzle aspects from the formula, but it’s nonetheless an enjoyable cooperative experience. Overall, Vanguard is a solid entry in the Call of Duty franchise, even if it feels a tad safe.
Read our Call of Duty: Vanguard review.
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from developer Treyarch marked a massive shift for the Call of Duty series, as it was the first in the entire franchise to not have a campaign mode. Despite that, the future-set military shooter impressed fans and is one of the best games in the series to date. Despite not having a campaign, we found the game’s three main modes–Zombies, Multiplayer, and Blackout–to offer substantial pathways to having a good time. Multiplayer was as good as ever, introducing new weapons and mechanics to take advantage of the game’s futuristic setting (but not forcing you to use them), while Zombies offered up a deep, memorable experience full of secrets to uncover as you lay waste to hordes of the undead.
But perhaps the biggest and most exciting innovation in Black Ops 4 was its battle royale mode, Blackout. A precursor to Warzone, which would come two years later, Blackout was Activision’s first step into the battle royale genre that it wanted to have a piece of after Fortnite and PUBG’s success. Critics and fans alike enjoyed Blackout, even if it wasn’t perfect, and Activision would go on to take the learnings from Blackout and apply them to Warzone with great success.
Read our Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review
8. Call of Duty: WWII
Released in 2017 from developer Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII marked the franchise’s first return to the historical setting of WWII in many years. No more super-abilities, no wall-running, no drones. This was back-to-basics Call of Duty meant to hearken back to the earliest days of the franchise–and it was a formula that fans enjoyed and embraced. With Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey as the co-directors, WWII told a story set throughout the European Theatre, covering well-known battles and events like the Normandy landings. The game’s campaign was praised for its Band of Brothers-style narrative, following the stories of a group of soldiers trying to survive in harsh conditions, with their bonds growing closer over time. The campaign was also notable for not having automatic health regeneration.
On the multiplayer side, WWII mixed things up by casting out the create-a-class system in favor of letting players join one of a handful of Divisions, each with its own set of skills and abilities. Multiplayer also adopted a Destiny Tower-style social space called Headquarters, where players could meet up and hang out, collect and complete challenges, and take part in 1v1 matches.
Read our Call of Duty: WWII review
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
An Infinity Ward-developed Call of Duty game makes the list again, showcasing the studio’s impressive track record. 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 followed up the massively popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare two years prior, continuing the story of Task Force 141 in another globe-trotting campaign to stop a terrorist threat. The campaign drew sharp and swift criticism for its infamous “No Russian” mission, in which the player takes part in an airport massacre and can choose to engage in the bloodshed.
The mission came with a warning, and it allowed players to skip it entirely, but Modern Warfare 2 will always be remembered for its No Russian mission. The campaign is short and sweet, coming in at around five hours, but what is there is memorable and action-packed–one of the finest Call of Duty campaigns to date. On the multiplayer side, Infinity Ward mixed things up with a restructured loadout system, while the perk system was overhauled as well, much to the enjoyment of players. The game proved to be so popular that Activision decided to remaster its campaign mode in 2020.
Read our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 had a very tough task–Treyarch’s latest game came a year after the disastrous launch of Modern Warfare 3, which opted for remade maps from previous games and a half-baked campaign mode. It would be easy to assume that this is the road Call of Duty would be going down for some time, but Black Ops 6 is nota cynical cash-grab. With one of the best–and most varied–campaigns in the series to date, Black Ops 6 sees our team of ultra-skilled rogue agents traveling everywhere from Kuwait to a secret facility in Washington D.C., seamlessly switching between super-stealthy missions and all-out chaos. The Black Ops games have often strived for the espionage-driven secret-agent story, with mixed results, but this is the best the campaign has been since the very first Black Ops back in 2010.
And while it doesn’t stray too far from the series’ core gameplay pillars, Black Ops 6 is also a worthy Call of Duty multiplayer game. The new Omnimovement system lets creative players find new ways to make their enemies look silly, and there always seems to be some trick or tool at your disposal that can help in a key situation. These can range from simple frag grenades to the always-exciting scorestreak rewards, and with a progression system that is still the best carrot-on-a-stick motivator around, it’s easy to lose several hours without realizing it.
Read our Black Ops 6 campaign review and multiplayer review.
5. Call of Duty 2
2005’s Call of Duty 2 from Infinity Ward was the second-ever Call of Duty game (not counting console-only spin-offs), and it told its story from multiple perspectives across different combatants in World War II. Its graphics and overall presentation style might look dated by today’s standards, but it was a market leader at the time, which shows just how much games have grown and evolved in 15 years. One of the game’s biggest changes over its predecessor was that it featured regenerating health, a system that would be featured in basically all future Call of Duty games in some capacity or another.
The game also introduced a grenade danger indicator, which was new at the time. Fans generally enjoyed the game’s head-to-head multiplayer mode, and here at GameSpot, we said Call of Duty 2’s “varied campaign, excellent sound and gameplay design, and generally good AI make it a worthy successor to the original.”
Read our Call of Duty 2 review
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops
2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, is among the most popular games in the franchise–and for good reason. The game features Avatar actor Sam Worthington as Alex Mason, with a supporting cast that included Ed Helms, James C. Burns, Ice Cube, and Gary Oldman in the memorable role of Viktor Reznov. Set in the ’60s during the Cold War and Vietnam War, Black Ops marked the franchise’s first steps into the murky waters of the “what if?” scenarios and conspiracy theories that many people love to entertain.
The game also featured cameos from real historical figures like JFK, Fidel Castro, and Robert McNamara. The multiplayer moved the franchise forward by giving players the freedom to better express themselves and customize their characters with unique cosmetics. And the fan-favorite Zombies mode that debuted in World at War was featured in Black Ops, letting fans fight against the undead in new environments with new abilities and features for the series. Black Ops was a tremendous success, and multiple sequels followed.
Read our Call of Duty: Black Ops review.
3. Call of Duty: Warzone
Call of Duty: Warzone was not Activision’s first stab at a battle royale experience, as that came from Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode. But Blackout took the first steps so Warzone could run. Released in March 2020 at the onset of the real-world pandemic, Warzone aimed to earn its place in the increasingly busy battle royale space by offering something no other game could. Call of Duty’s trademark gunplay, weapons, and the “feel” that the game provides is unmatched, and applied to a battle royale setting, the game thrived.
For years, Call of Duty fans called on Activision to create a large-scale, Battlefield-style Call of Duty experience, and Warzone delivered in spades, offering a gigantic map in Verdansk full of secrets, Easter eggs, and locations taken from memorable maps of Call of Duty’s past. Warzone is the game many Call of Duty fans could only dream of, and it is also free–lowering the barrier of entry and giving players who, for years, asked for a multiplayer-only Call of Duty (outside of the since-shuttered Call of Duty Online for Asia), exactly what they wanted. The game was not without its issues–cheating and the integration of Black Ops Cold War’s weapons are among the issues players have called out–but the overall package is a bonafide hit.
Read our Call of Duty: Warzone review.
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
Activision rebooted its massively popular Modern Warfare series in 2019. Again, Infinity Ward took the reins of development, but the studio had changed since 2007’s Modern Warfare. Top bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired years prior (the two then co-founded Respawn), with Naughty Dog veterans Jacob Minkoff and Taylor Kurosaki leading the team–and to great success. 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot was not only a sales juggernaut, but it scored with fans who enjoyed its return to the modern-day setting after 2018’s Black Ops 4 went further into the future. Modern Warfare, like the 2007 game, followed a world-traveling story of soldiers fighting against a common enemy.
The campaign had many striking, Zero Dark Thirty-style missions and sequences, and in one memorable sequence, you play as a little girl scrambling through a home as an enemy seeks to find her. It was a harrowing, controversial mission that, if nothing else, stands out as memorable. The multiplayer in Modern Warfare was celebrated for its great diversity of maps and modes, and for introducing large-scale warfare with vehicles and bigger maps. The gunplay was once again excellent, and the bones of the game–the proprietary Modern Warfare engine–tied things together in a cohesive way. Modern Warfare also paved the way for 2020’s Call of Duty: Warzone, which ended up being the biggest expansion to Call of Duty in years.
Read our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review.
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
Infinity Ward’s 2007 shooter sits at the top of our list and earned its place there for good reason. The game took the series out of World War II and moved it to a modern-day setting to tell a gripping, globe-trotting story with many twists and turns as players battled against a terrorist threat on a global scale. The game was praised for its cinematic, Hollywood-style campaign mode, while its quieter moments drew praise, too–the All Ghillied Up sniper mission remains iconic for the series.
But the game’s bigger impact came from its multiplayer. The game popularized now-common multiplayer elements like killstreaks and earning experience to unlock new weapons to create user-specific loadouts. After reaching level 55, players could elect to unlock “Prestige,” restart from 0, and grind all the way back up again to earn special designations. A lot of popular multiplayer conventions were established with Modern Warfare, many of which continue today in new forms. Activision remastered the game in 2016 and rebooted it with Modern Warfare in 2019, signaling its ongoing strength as a series.
Read our Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare review
Kompletter Artikel: Best Call Of Duty Games, Ranked