Modern Warfare 2 player count plummets ahead of Season 3

Modern Warfare 2 player count plummets ahead of Season 3
Images via Infinity Ward

Written by 

Joseph Kime

Published 

29th Mar 2023 10:10

Modern Warfare 2 is carrying the live-service attitude that Call of Duty has had for the last few years, and it seems to be working - well, at least from the outside.

The approach to keeping players engaged has worked a treat, with Infinity Ward introducing new weapons and maps to ensure that players aren't going anywhere.

Though nobody is returning to 2021's Vanguard, it looks like we need to step things up in terms of Modern Warfare 2 content. Worryingly, players are beginning to drop off.

Modern Warfare 2's player numbers are tanking

It looks like fans are getting bored of the current CoD offerings, as player numbers are plummeting. New reports from SteamCharts show that MW2 has shown the lowest player numbers in a 24-hour period since the game launched.

While it might sound impressive to most games, only holding onto 90 thousand players at once is a major fall from grace for the CoDverse. For a game that made a billion dollars in 10 days, this is a pretty brutal sting. What's worse is that we're not even halfway through its expected lifespan.

Infinity Ward is gearing up to bring back some classic weapons in the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 Season 3 if recent leaks are to be believed, but we're not sure it'll be enough to bring players back to the current instalment of the shooter series.

Fans react to plummeting Modern Warfare 2 player numbers

The lack of players has been reported in the Modern Warfare 2 subreddit, and some fans have shared their theories on why players aren't so keen to return to the game.

One raged, "That's because this game feels like a soulless, corporate sequel to MW19. They cut corners in a lot of areas despite having a basically unlimited budget, they knew this game was going to be a best-seller yet they still decided to be lazy and sh*t on the fans."

Another added, "If it wasn't for ranked play I wouldn't go on the game tbh," while a third concluded, "Sorry guys, my bad. I'm only interested in CoD when Activision ISNT f*****g over their playerbase." Mainly, there were a lot of complaints about SBMM. 

Things aren't looking good for Modern Warfare 2 right now, and though drop-off was to be expected, this is incredibly steep for a Call of Duty title. Are we already seeing the beginning of the end?

Joseph Kime
About the author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
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