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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare racks up over 500 million multiplayer play hours

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® | Multiplayer Reveal Trailer

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a phenomenal multiplayer shooter, made with an understanding of what worked in the previous trilogy without feeling limited by the groundwork laid out in those games. It appears players have been enjoying their time with the game thus far, as Activision announced it has totaled more than 500 million hours of multiplayer playtime since its launch less than two months ago.

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In just 50 days, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare players collectively battled in 300 million multiplayer matches, and the collective multiplayer hours played, hours per player, and average daily player numbers all set records for the franchise during this generation. This is despite the game including a campaign mode, which last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 did not, instead offering the battle royale mode Blackout.

Players have been able to continue enjoying the game together for a longer period of time, as Modern Warfare got rid of the season pass system and paid map DLC, instead giving everyone access to all maps and modes as they became available. On top of this, the game included cross-play support from the beginning, allowing those on PS4, Xbox One, and PC to all enjoy the game together, as well as carry their progress from one platform to the next if they decided to switch.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Thus far, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has managed to sell more than $1 billion worth of copies across both physical and digital versions. These would be eyebrow-raising numbers for nearly any other franchise, though they are essentially par for the course for the gargantuan Call of Duty. Despite the popularity of the free-to-play Fortnite as well as players’ growing interest in the next generation of game consoles, they’re still more than willing to get the latest game from Activision and get a few kill-streak rewards online — more than a few, as the playtime numbers made clear.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. A free mobile game called Call of Duty: Mobile includes some elements from the Modern Warfare series and can be played on both iOS and Android. It also includes a battle royale mode.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's zombies mode.

There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
Jugger-Nog
You can never go wrong with the classic Jugger-Nog. Increasing your health by 100 is useful for the entire duration of a Zombies mode, but especially in the early rounds. Going down is at best a major setback and at worst a cascade into defeat. This extra health allows you to get out of a bad situation that would otherwise end your run.
Quick Revive
This Perk has two components, with the less useful one being the ability to revive teammates 50% faster. Ideally, that shouldn't be needed but is nice. However, what makes it rank so high is the 50% shorter delay on health regen. Your health will come back over time in Zombies but at a dreadful pace. Starting to heal faster means less time running and kiting zombies around and more time in the action helping the team.
Speed Cola
The best early guns for Zombies mode have a large magazine, fast reload, or both. Running out of ammo at the wrong time and not being able to get more rounds in the chamber fast enough has ended many a run, but Speed Cola is the solution. It will speed up your reloads and armor plating by 30%. That's not a massive number, but fast enough to make the difference.
Stamin-Up
These zombies aren't the shambling types. They will chase you down like sprinters, and some of the monstrous ones can outpace you even at full tilt. Stamin-Up sounds like it would let you run for longer, but actually just lets you run faster since you have no limit on sprint in Black Ops 6. Positioning is everything in Zombies so being able to get where you need to be faster is never a bad thing, especially if it's a downed teammate bleeding out.
Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
Not being able to hurt yourself is situationally useful, and the ability to cause an explosion by diving is a risky move. Yes, it's cool, but you don't want to be lying prone surrounded by zombies. This is a cool gimmick, but save yourself the Essence and skip it.
Elemental Pop
When Elemental Pop works, it's great. The problem with it is that you can't rely on it. It gives a small chance on every shot you take to add a random ammo mod effect, which is cool but impractical. If you have spare Essence on you, sure, it won't hurt you to have, but it isn't something that will turn the tide for you or your team.
Melee Macchiato
Finally, Melee Macchiato bottoms out the list. It is fine in the early game when the hordes are small and you're better off meleeing enemies since it will smack enemies away with each hit, but quickly drops off in usefulness. When the zombies get too strong and too numerous, you will need a lot more than a strong punch to deal with them and end up forgetting you even have it.

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War is hell, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes it a carnival game
Zombies shambling in Black Ops 6.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.

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The best Call of Duty games, ranked
Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.

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