The Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta closed this morning, September 1, at 10:00 AM Pacific — the end of a second weekend that had been open to everyone since August 28, with no pre-order required. For a series that has spent years gating its betas behind early-access codes, letting the whole player base in for four full days is a notable shift, and it produced the clearest picture yet of what launches on October 23.
Six maps, and the one that arrived late
The core 6v6 rotation ran six maps across the two weekends. Five were available from the start: Rooftops, Silkworm, Transit 213, Cachette and Lotus. Lithium joined only for the second weekend, which is a familiar Activision pattern — hold one map back so the returning crowd has a reason to come back rather than assume they have already seen everything.
Warzone players got their own addition in weekend two: Zodiac, a new map for Resurgence. That it appeared in a Modern Warfare beta at all is worth noting, because it confirms the two products are being tested as one pipeline rather than two.
Ground War came back at 24v24
The second weekend also opened Ground War: Combat Outpost, a 24v24 infantry-and-vehicle mode played on two maps, Imjin Farmlands and Wolves Stadium. Ground War has always been the mode that separates people who want tight three-lane maps from people who want tanks and helicopters, and putting it in the beta this late reads as a deliberate stress test — 48 players on a map is where netcode problems show up, and it is much cheaper to find them in August than in November.
The mode list is where the risk sits
Alongside Team Deathmatch and Domination, the beta ran 3v3 Gunfight and two new modes, Hijack and Inflation. New modes are the part of any Call of Duty launch most likely to be quietly abandoned three seasons later, so their beta reception matters more than the map list does. Maps get added all year. Modes that nobody queues into get shelved.
Activision also put a campaign mission in the beta — a first for the series. Whatever else that is, it is a confidence signal: publishers do not hand out campaign missions early when the campaign is in trouble.
What this means if you are deciding
Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Battle.net, Steam and Xbox on PC, and — for the first time in the series — Nintendo Switch 2. The Steam listing sits at €69.99.
If you skipped the beta, the practical takeaway is that the launch content is broader than usual: six core maps tested publicly, Ground War already running at full player count, and Warzone integration visible before release rather than promised for a later season. None of that guarantees the game is good. It does mean fewer of the launch-week surprises that have defined recent entries.
The one thing the beta could not tell you is how the progression and monetization systems behave over a season, because betas never include them in their final form. That is the part worth waiting for a review on.
If you are weighing a €69.99 shooter against the free-to-play alternatives, our War Thunder review covers a game that asks for your time instead of your money up front — and is honest about where that trade stops being fair. And if your connection is the thing holding your aim back rather than your aim, our guide to ping and regional servers applies to any shooter with a matchmaking pool.
