Modern Warfare 4 Tops COD Steam Ratings in a Decade

Call of Duty is having a rare good week on Steam. Modern Warfare 4’s campaign early access opened on October 16 for players who pre-ordered, and the first wave of reviews has pushed the game to a spot the series has not reached on the platform in more than 10 years.

At the time Insider Gaming tallied the numbers, Modern Warfare 4 held an 81.15% positive rating on SteamDB’s adjusted scale, which pulls scores toward the middle when a game has only a few reviews. Steam’s own raw figures were even kinder: about 87% positive across roughly 1,078 reviews by Saturday morning, with later counts climbing past 1,800 reviews and around 90% positive. Only Black Ops 3 from 2015, at 84.36% on SteamDB’s scale, still sits ahead, and Modern Warfare 4’s fast-growing review count could close that gap.

The turnaround looks even sharper next to the series’ recent history. Black Ops 7 sits at 38.71%, Black Ops 6 at 45.75%, Modern Warfare 3 at 48.19%, and Modern Warfare 2 at 47.10%. Even older entries that fans remember fondly land below Modern Warfare 4’s early mark: Black Ops Cold War at 77.95%, Modern Warfare 2019 at 77.86%, and Vanguard at 65.94%.

Still, keep some perspective. Every review so far comes from players who paid for a pre-order to play the campaign a week early, the most enthusiastic slice of the audience. They are also judging the story alone, since multiplayer is not live yet. The campaign reportedly runs about 8 hours or less. Early critics have been warm too, with GameSpot calling it the best campaign since Modern Warfare 2019 and IGN saying the saga is going out on a high note.

The real test arrives next week. DMZ, the returning extraction mode, opens on October 20 for pre-order players, and the full game, including multiplayer, launches on October 23. PC players should also note that TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required for online play. Early player counts already topped Black Ops 7, so the audience is there. Whether the score holds once the wider player base jumps in is the question to watch.

Sources: Insider Gaming, GameBeacon