The Modern Warfare 2 beta started its second run on Friday night on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. While it’s not the first time PlayStation players can play the game, it’s only the second time PC and Xbox users have access to the game’s beta version.
It’s only accessible to those who have pre-ordered the beta code to date, and the beta is already setting records.
It was widely believed to be huge; however, since Call of Duty has been absent from Steam for five years, We’ve never been able to get a clear picture of its player counts on PC. Modern Warfare 2 marks the return of the series to Steam, and the fans have shown their support in a big way.
Although beta access was restricted to pre-orders, over 110,000 players joined to play the game at its highest. This was enough to put it among the top 5 of Steam’s rankings the night before.
On one side, this isn’t surprising at all. The Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 2 has consistently been on or at the top of the lists of Steam’s top-selling games of the week. Since pre-orders give beta access, it is easy to imagine that a significant part of the players has already purchased the game.
However, when you consider that Steam is only one of the avenues for players to PC can play Call of Duty now, Battle.net is likely to be seeing an equal amount of users. Call of Duty has been off Steam for some time, so it’s not unreasonable to believe that players have accrued COD Points and Battle.net friends over time and would likely wish their investment to stay.
The numbers, however, are likely to rise even more the weekend after the beta is completely open and is made available to everyone to download.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be available on October 28 to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.