2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — the reboot that kicked off a new era for the long-running military FPS franchise with a standout single-player campaign and rock-solid multiplayer — is back in the spotlight in a big way. Shortly after its release, the series’ second swing at battle royale with Warzone became an overnight sensation. Now, the Modern Warfare sub-series is making a surprise comeback, and the numbers are hard to ignore.
The Steam Spring Sale 2026 is behind it all. Activision has slashed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) by a massive 90%, dropping it to an all-time low of $5.99 / £4.99 — well below any previous discount the game has seen. For context, it’s incredibly rare to see Call of Duty games discounted anywhere near this aggressively. A 90% cut is virtually unprecedented for the franchise. For comparison, 2012’s Black Ops 2 is sitting at a more typical 67% off in the same sale.
It’s also worth noting that Modern Warfare (2019) sits outside the current Call of Duty HQ launcher that houses the most recent entries in the series. For all intents and purposes, Activision has quietly moved on from it — yet here it is, topping the charts.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The player count explosion speaks for itself. The game hit a new Steam peak of over 61,000 concurrent players thanks to this deal — a jump from just a few hundred players in the days before the sale. To put that in perspective, the Call of Duty HQ app — which houses more recent titles including Black Ops 7 — had less than half that number at the same time on Steam. These figures are Steam-only and don’t account for console players across PlayStation and Xbox.
Modern Warfare is also holding its own against EA’s current flagship shooter. Battlefield 6‘s 24-hour peak remains higher, but the gap is far narrower than anyone expected between a six-year-old discounted game and one of 2025’s biggest commercial releases.
A Series at a Crossroads
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched in late 2025 to mixed reception — critics were divided, and player sentiment was notably lukewarm despite it remaining one of the year’s top-grossing titles. Meanwhile, Battlefield 6 had a massive launch that made it the best-selling game in the US for 2025, finally dethroning Call of Duty after more than two decades. However, its post-launch retention has been poor, with player counts dropping sharply after the initial honeymoon period faded.
If you’re looking to make the most of your time in MW2019’s iconic maps, you might also enjoy discovering clever movement tricks — like this Crimson Desert tree catapult trick for Swift Flight. And if you’re keeping an eye on what’s next in gaming, Minecraft Dungeons 2 has officially been announced for Fall 2026.
Is This MW4 Marketing in Disguise?
The timing is impossible to ignore. Alongside the Steam discount, Infinity Ward activated a double XP weekend for MW2019 — over six years after launch. That’s not something studios do for old games without a reason.
Leaks and reports strongly point toward Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward as the 2026 Call of Duty entry, with rumours placing much of its campaign in Korea. With an MW4 reveal expected in the coming months, the deep discount on the 2019 reboot — the start of this continuity — looks increasingly like a strategic move to reignite interest before the marketing machine kicks into full gear.
No matter how you look at it, the data is stunning. A six-year-old shooter, priced at under six dollars, outpacing Activision’s own current-gen flagship on Steam. Whether it’s savvy pre-launch marketing, genuine player nostalgia, or both — the appetite for Modern Warfare‘s tone and gameplay clearly hasn’t gone anywhere.
The Steam Spring Sale discount runs until March 26, 2026, so the window is closing fast.
