Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access Wins Over Steam With 90% Positive Reviews
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is off to a surprisingly warm start. The campaign early access, which opened in mid-October for players who pre-ordered a digital edition, has pushed the game to a Very Positive rating on Steam, with roughly 90 percent of more than 1,800 user reviews recommending it. That is far above the reception of recent entries in the series, and it arrives a week before the full launch on October 23 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.
The Strongest Steam Reception in a Decade
The 90 percent figure is the highest Steam approval for a Call of Duty game in more than ten years. Black Ops III from 2015 previously held the series high at around 84 percent. More recent games have struggled by comparison: Black Ops 7 sits around 39 percent positive, Black Ops 6 near 46 percent, Modern Warfare III around 48 percent and Modern Warfare II near 47 percent. The score has also climbed since the first wave of reviews, which started in the low 80s.
The praise is aimed squarely at the campaign. Modern Warfare 4 concludes the rebooted Modern Warfare story that began in 2019, with a plot in which North Korea launches a full-scale invasion of the Korean Peninsula and the conflict spreads across multiple regions. Critics have called it one of the strongest Call of Duty campaigns in recent years, pointing to its production values, pacing and willingness to push darker themes. It reportedly runs eight hours or less, so players looking for long-term value will focus on what comes next.
Player Numbers and What Comes Next
Early numbers support the positive mood. On the first day of early access, the combined Call of Duty player count on Steam passed 108,000 concurrent players, a peak higher than anything Black Ops 7 managed during its launch window. That figure needs a caveat, because the tracking tool groups several Call of Duty titles together, which makes it hard to isolate Modern Warfare 4’s own performance.
The game’s earlier beta tells a more complicated story. The August beta peaked at 115,145 concurrent players on Steam, about 15,000 higher than the Black Ops 7 beta, but participation dropped by roughly 65 percent over the first weekend. Steam reviews at the time were mixed, with complaints about performance problems and aim assist that some players felt was too strong for controller users. Other talking points included a faster time-to-kill and the decision to drop the Omnimovement system.
Multiplayer is the real test. The full game launches with 12 core multiplayer maps, each with a custom infil and distinct visual identity, along with two Prestige paths, Classic and Regular. Multiplayer and the DMZ mode open on October 23, and the full multiplayer suite is expected to arrive in stages after launch. Activision has built the game around a weapon-first system focused on precision aiming, physical handling and realistic audio.
History shows that campaign praise does not always carry over to multiplayer, which is what ultimately shapes long-term Steam numbers. Still, the early signs are a notable change of mood for a franchise that has faced fatigue in recent years. If the multiplayer matches the campaign’s quality, Modern Warfare 4 could give Call of Duty its strongest launch in a long time.
