MW4 Release Date and Launch Times by Region

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases on Friday, October 23, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. The MW4 release date has stayed the same since Activision announced the game on May 28, 2026. There is no PS4 or Xbox One version.

Release date and platforms

The Switch 2 version makes this the first Call of Duty on a Nintendo console since Ghosts in 2013. Switch 2 pre-orders opened on August 26 on the Nintendo eShop and at retail.

Unlock times by region

PlayStation 5 unlocks at midnight local time on October 23, 2026. Steam unlocks on October 23, 2026 at 12:00 AM ET, which is October 22 at 9:00 PM PT.

The US PlayStation Store listing for the Vault Edition gives the release as October 23, 2026 at 04:00 UTC, midnight on the US East Coast. If that is a simultaneous global unlock, the UK unlocks at 5:00 AM BST, Central Europe at 6:00 AM CEST, India at 9:30 AM IST, Japan at 1:00 PM JST and Sydney at 3:00 PM AEDT on October 23. Consoles in other regions have historically unlocked at local midnight instead.

Campaign early access

A digital pre-order or pre-purchase of either edition opens the full campaign on Friday, October 16, 2026 (Pacific Time), seven days before launch. Multiplayer and DMZ still unlock on October 23. A physical disc pre-order does not get campaign early access.

Preload

PC preload opens Thursday, October 15 at 9:00 AM PT for digital pre-purchases on Battle.net, Steam and Xbox on PC. That is 12:00 PM in New York, 5:00 PM in London, 6:00 PM in Paris and 3:00 AM on Friday in Sydney. As of October 9, the official blog has not posted a console preload date.

Editions and pre-order

• Standard Edition: $69.99 in the US, with campaign early access, the Inner Circuit weapon blueprint at launch, and the Hunter Killer operator skin and Gilded Pearl camo pack for current Call of Duty titles.
• Vault Edition: $99.99, adding the Hostile Alliance operator pack (Price, Valeria, Ghost and Blix), the Special Forces operator pack, the Signature Weapon Collection and one season of BlackCell.
• Vault upgrade: $30, available separately.

Returning players who own and have played a qualifying Call of Duty title released in 2019 or later on the same platform account get 10 percent off the Vault Edition at participating digital stores. The discount applies to pre-orders only, ends on October 23, 2026, and does not apply to the $30 upgrade.

Microsoft Store buyers who pre-order a digital edition before 11:59 PM ET on October 22 get a promotional Xbox gift card plus Dual 2XP Tokens, redeemable by December 15, 2026 and spendable within 90 days.

Game Pass

Modern Warfare 4 is not a day-one Game Pass title. Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 both arrived on Game Pass Ultimate on day one, but that changed when Microsoft restructured Game Pass in April 2026. Ultimate subscribers can still use cloud play on Xbox if they own the game.

PC requirements

All tiers need 115 GB on an SSD, a broadband connection, DirectX 12, and TPM 2.0 with Secure Boot enabled. The processor must support AVX, and Intel Arc cards need Resizable BAR.

Activision's ultra tier for high-quality ray tracing at upscaled 4K lists a Ryzen 7 3700X or Core i7-10700K, 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT.

What's in the game

• Campaign: developed by Infinity Ward, it continues Captain Price's story in a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, with missions in New York, Paris and Mumbai.
• Multiplayer: the open beta ran in August, and Activision highlights a new mode called Collateral, described as high-stakes, single-life play.
• DMZ: the extraction mode returns, set in the Hajin Exclusion Zone.
• Mastery Camos: 12 main Mastery Camos to earn across MW4's core game modes.

If you want the campaign and multiplayer progression handled for you, Epiccarry's Modern Warfare 4 boosting covers the parts you would rather not grind yourself.