Modern Warfare 3 doesn’t live up to the launch of MW2 with a significant drop in player count

❘ published: 2023-11-13T02:59:02 ❘ Updated: 2023-11-13T02:59:15

Modern Warfare 3’s launch has had difficulty matching Modern Warfare 2’s player count at launch as the game continues to have a rocky start.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has arrived, and its arrival has been met with a wave of criticism from players. Although the game is a direct sequel to the 2022 release of Modern Warfare 2, the game takes fans on a trip down memory lane with all 16 maps from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 returning.

However, there are some major changes for players who experienced the second Modern Warfare game in the Modern Warfare series at the time, and not all of them were well received. The latest version’s time-to-kill increase was criticized as “horrible” and inconsistent, players were divided over the new “boring” zombie mode, and the new weapon system was rated as “horrible”.

It now appears that the game’s rocky start, including a much-criticized campaign mode, is being reflected in the significant decline in player numbers since Modern Warfare 2’s launch in 2022.

Currently, Modern Warfare 3 peaked at 190,273 concurrent players on Steam over the game’s launch weekend, and reached those highs on November 12, according to Steam charts.

Interestingly, MW3’s player count represents a significant decline from Modern Warfare 2’s October 2022 debut, which peaked at 262,875 players on Steam during the game’s launch weekend.

While Modern Warfare 3’s launch numbers are still impressive for a newly released game, it’s a sign that players weren’t willing to spend their hard-earned money on a game that many initially confused as DLC.

Of course, this comparison doesn’t take into account the number of players on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which data suggests represents roughly 70% of the total number of Call of Duty players in the past.

If you’ve already beaten Modern Warfare 3 and want to make the most of your experience, look no further than our guides for gear tips and more:

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