Modern Warfare explodes on Steam after six years

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is exploding on Steam more than six years after its initial release, thanks to a deep discount that knocked it down to its lowest price ever on the platform. As Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Continuing to break its own records for the number of players on Steam, Infinity Ward responded by making it possible to double XP in the game throughout the weekend.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released in 2019 as a reboot of the fan favorite Modern warfare series. The single player campaign quickly became considered one of the best Call of Duty campaigns so far and also the multiplayer is considered one of the best entries in the series. It used a new version of the IW Engine, which represents one of the most significant technical steps for the franchise in its entire long history.

First-person gameplay from First Call of Duty

Today's Call of Duty is nothing like the series that started 20 years ago

Call of Duty is a true gaming Goliath, but the franchise has changed so much over the years that it's almost unrecognizable.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has a huge number of players on steam after a big discount

on Steam, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available for the first time ever at 90% off as part of Steam's Spring Sale 2026. This price cut brings the game down to just $5.99 until March 26th, a significant drop from the previous low of $19.79. The Call of Duty the series is notorious for keeping the prices of older titles high on Steam, so players are taking advantage while they have the chance. According to SteamDB, the number of players in the game has gone through the roof. Before the discount it averaged 200 to 800 concurrent players. At the time of writing, it enjoyed a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of 52,183, also an all-time high for a game on Steam. It is important to realize this Call of Duty: Modern Warfare did not launch on Steam at release; players had to purchase it on Battle.net until it finally launched on Valve's platform in March 2023. This explains why the previous all-time high of 3,581 was so low compared to the game's overall popularity.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)

For some perspective, Call of Duty application that is used to run the most advanced COD games, incl Black Ops 7currently has the highest number of concurrent players on Steam in 24 hours at 41,230. That's nowhere near the numbers Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is currently being downloaded and these numbers could go even higher in the coming days. There have been several player-led revival attempts in the past Call of Duty: Modern Warfarebut none have been as successful as Infinity Ward simply making the game available at a 90% discount.

The developer is aware of the growing number of players and has acted accordingly. In a post on X, Infinity Ward confirmed that players are jumping into it Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will enjoy double XP over the weekend, so it's the perfect time to jump in and enjoy a busy lobby, fast XP, and one of the best COD previous experience with multiplayer.

It comes at that time of year when Activision prepares to unveil its annual report Call of Duty title. The publisher has yet to talk about another game in the series, although prominent rumors from last year suggested that it would Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4set in Korea. Nothing is confirmed at this point and any rumors along these lines should be taken with a grain of salt until Activision confirms it one way or the other.