Call of Duty: Warzone player count 2020-2021

Within 24 hours of release on March 10, 2020, multiplayer sensation Call of Duty: Warzone amassed six million active players worldwide. This number grew to surpass 100 million downloads after only 13 months on the market.

Call of Duty franchise

Call of Duty is a popular first-person shooter video game series published by Activision. First launched in 2003, the franchise now features many of the world’s top-grossing video games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and other fan favorites. While the CoD universe continues to draw audiences with annual main series releases for PC and gaming consoles, it was the franchise’s recent dive into the world of mobile gaming and free-to-play releases that created its biggest gaming buzz in years.

Warzone sets the tone

Call of Duty: Warzone is the franchise’s first free-to-play (F2P) online multiplayer game. It debuted as a battle royale mode for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on March 10, 2020, and considering that this launch coincided with the first wave of lockdowns in the United States and many other countries alike, it comes as no surprise that the multiplayer game (which pits up to 150 players against one another) has become a smash hit. Not only was the title nominated as the best multiplayer game at the 2020 Game Awards, but Warzone’s instant success also translated to the streaming world: As of 2021, Warzone ranked among the ten most popular games on Twitch based on peak all-time viewers.