Modern Warfare 4 has the best Steam rating for a Call of Duty game in 16 years

[DragonSlayer101]

The big picture: Ahead of its official launch later this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is offering early access to its campaign for players who pre-order the game. As expected, thousands of players are taking advantage of the opportunity, and the vast majority apparently seem impressed with the gameplay, graphics, and storyline.

The game currently has 4,068 total reviews on Steam, including 3,438 from verified buyers. Of those reviews, 94% are positive, earning it a "Very Positive" rating overall and making it the best-reviewed Call of Duty release on Steam since 2010's Black Ops. The SteamDB ratings were first reported by Insider Gaming last week, when the game had around 900 reviews and an 81.5% positive rating.

In stark contrast to the overwhelmingly positive response to Modern Warfare 4, recent releases in the Call of Duty franchise have struggled to even reach the 50% mark. 2025's Black Ops 7 has a 38.7% rating on SteamDB, while 2024's Black Ops 6 and 2023's Modern Warfare III have ratings of 45.7% and 48.1%, respectively. The only other recent CoD title with a similarly high rating is Black Ops III, which currently has 84.3% positive reviews.

The positive initial reception for Modern Warfare 4 must come as a relief to Activision, which has struggled in recent years. Not only have the last few mainline CoD releases received lukewarm responses from players and reviewers alike, but the company has also faced significant financial and creative challenges, resulting in several rounds of layoffs since Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision in 2023.

However, Modern Warfare 4's unusually high rating could change considerably once the game becomes more widely available later this week and players get a chance to try its multiplayer offerings. These include 12 core 6v6 maps and the extraction-shooter mode "DMZ," in which multiple squads of up to three players deploy into an area known as the "exclusion zone."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches Friday, October 23, on Windows, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is the last big AAA release this year before the much-anticipated GTA 6 launch in November, with most publishers pushing their upcoming releases to 2027 to avoid clashing with Rockstar's open-world juggernaut.

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Modern Warfare 4 has the best Steam rating for a Call of Duty game in 16 years

 

[The Talking Tech]

Since this game won't be on Gamepass, this might finally be the game that could give the Xbox division the profits they have been waiting for to get them out of the water.

 

[LordVile95]

Since this game won't be on Gamepass, this might finally be the game that could give the Xbox division the profits they have been waiting for to get them out of the water.

Issue is you don’t know how many people have bought it because it’s just “call of duty” on steam. That being said **** valve the anti consumer tossers.

 

[Shaitan]

Nah, not falling for it again. Yet another woke slop sh!tfest. No.

 

[Hexic]

Nah, not falling for it again. Yet another woke slop sh!tfest. No.

Hey now, that new Gears game was just pure gold.

/e: I was laughing so hard I forgot to include the /s

 

[Jim Lahey]

I only play COD Zombies, so my perspective on these titles is entirely based on that subtype of gameplay.

Best entry, Black Ops III, then Black Ops, followed by Black Ops 7.

I mean, I hope that they do better than they have lately, so that the studio can sink more resources into future entries with a zombies gameplay mode.

 

[Megalomaniac]

Nah, not falling for it again. Yet another woke slop sh!tfest. No.

There's Nothing woke about it.

What are you talking about?

 

[Megalomaniac]

MW4 was actually really damn good.
The North Korea missions where they put you in the boots of a NK soldier was brilliant.
The opening levels with Price as John Wick was brilliant.
Most people are focusing on the Paris driving mission, but the entire game had moments of brilliance.
Ri Ju Young was a realistic villain.

 

[NumberNine]

My bet is they've ignored decades of negative player feedback and then asked a large language model how to save their company and it replied "How you tried making better games?", so here we are.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Issue is you don’t know how many people have bought it because it’s just “call of duty” on steam. That being said **** valve the anti consumer tossers.

I swear you just take up contrarian positions so you can start arguments.

MW4 was actually really damn good.
The North Korea missions where they put you in the boots of a NK soldier was brilliant.
The opening levels with Price as John Wick was brilliant.
Most people are focusing on the Paris driving mission, but the entire game had moments of brilliance.
Ri Ju Young was a realistic villain.

"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliance" instead of buying the most expensive tech every year, perhaps you could invest in a thesaurus.

 

[Megalomaniac]

I swear you just take up contrarian positions so you can start arguments.
"Brilliant, brilliant, brilliance" instead of buying the most expensive tech every year, perhaps you could invest in a thesaurus.

Or I could keep buying expensive tech every year and ignore calls for me to buy a thesaurus.

 

[LordVile95]

I swear you just take up contrarian positions so you can start arguments.

No I just like reminding people that the 30% cut of digital games started with valve and anything people praise them for with steam is most likely mandated by a court, like their returns policy which they refused to implement until they got sued.

Also before you start telling people to buy a thesaurus you should stop overusing yours. “Perhaps” doesn’t fit in that sentence

 

[yRaz]

people praise them for with steam is most likely mandated by a court

I think it is important to note that those court mandates came from a time when the US actually enforced consumer protection laws. There are many other companise that should be haulled into court over far worse things. The popularity of Steam because of those mandates has kept other PC stores in check. If other online stores wanted to compete with Steam, they could. it's just easier for them to keep their profit margins and cry about what a horrible company Valve is.