Call of Duty fans crown the 'best campaign' of all time

Nowadays, the main draw of Call of Duty is the chaotic, high-octane multiplayer, which is regularly refreshed with new content. 

Despite this, the campaign storylines are essential to the experience, offering a brief adventure featuring iconic characters that the fanbase adores. With so many games in the franchise, figuring out which campaign sits above the rest is not an easy task.

Luckily, a portion of the community has come together to debate the topic, and one CoD title has come out on top with the most support. Still, the winner may surprise you.

What's the best Call of Duty campaign of all time?

Taking to the CallofDuty subreddit, user Goblin216 decided to ask players which one of the countless CoD games has the best campaign, and it sparked a massive discussion.

Believe it or not, the title that took the crown wasn't actually from the Modern Warfare series, instead being the old-school World at War. This suggestion received the most upvotes by a significant margin, mainly due to its darker and grittier narrative that didn't feel the need to go over the top with set pieces.

"WAW, very dark and gritty, one of the few WW2 games that I actually enjoy/enjoyed playing," said one user, with another declaring "WaW, no questions asked."

Releasing all the way back in 2008, Treyarch's WaW not only knocked the narrative out of the park, but also introduced a Zombie formula that's loved and sorely missed in today's MW3.

Since then, CoD storylines have felt the need to rely on big explosions and unrealistic fight scenes. This wasn't needed in WaW, as the historical theme and serious story kept fans gripped the entire time. 

Call of Duty fans give honourable mentions to top-tier campaigns

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World at War may be sitting on the throne for now, but the community had plenty of honourable mentions that they felt deserved a shoutout. One of these is Call of Duty 4, the game that kicked off the Modern Warfare series and features some of the most iconic missions in CoD history, like All Ghillied Up.

Fans also paid homage to its sequel, Modern Warfare 2, which fully leaned into the wild set pieces and high-octane action while also featuring one of the best twists in the series (RIP Ghost).

Last but certainly not least is Black Ops 1, which is definitely the game that came closest to stealing the crown from WaW. There's so much love for this game and alongside WaW, it's often considered Treyarch's best project.

Very few modern Call of Duty's got a mention from fans, with Cold War being the only one that got any credit. While WaW holds the top spot today, it feels like as time passes the favourite changes constantly, which just goes to show how brilliant some of the stories have been over the years.