THE CRUNCH

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is off to a remarkably warm reception on Steam, even though the full game is not out yet. The campaign opened early on October 16 for anyone who pre-ordered a digital edition, and the resulting user reviews have pushed the game into "Very Positive" territory. TechPowerUp put the score at 90% from 1,812 reviews on October 18, while Eurogamer later counted over 3,100 reviews at 92%, so the exact figure is moving as more players finish the roughly six-hour campaign. Either way, it is the highest-rated Call of Duty on Steam since 2015's Black Ops III.

The contrast with recent entries is stark. SteamDB rates last year's Black Ops 7 at around 38%, Black Ops 6 at about 46%, and the last two Modern Warfare games in the high 40s, all well short of Black Ops III's 84%. Eurogamer notes the turnaround is surprising given pre-launch community drama and the PC beta's lower-than-expected numbers, and IGN's campaign review landed at 8/10.

Two caveats are worth keeping in mind. The current reviewers are pre-order customers who paid for early access, probably the series' most enthusiastic players, so the score may soften once the wider audience arrives. Multiplayer unlocks with the full launch on October 23, and DMZ, the extraction shooter mode, opens early to pre-orders on October 20. PC players also need TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled to play.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

DMZ unlocks for pre-order players on October 20, and the full launch with multiplayer follows on October 23, when the Steam rating is likely to move again.