Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Sees Massive Steam Surge During Spring Sale

A significant price reduction has propelled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to shatter its previous Steam concurrent player record over the weekend, achieving a new peak of 61,667 players. This makes the 2019 title more popular on Valve's PC platform than last year's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Developed by Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare successfully revitalized the Call of Duty franchise and was followed by the highly popular battle royale mode, Warzone, which gained traction during pandemic-era stay-at-home gaming.

Typically priced at $59.99, the 2019 first-person shooter is now available for just $5.99 (or equivalent regional prices like £4.99 in the UK) as part of Steam's Spring Sale, likely marking its lowest-ever price on Valve's digital storefront.

Upon its initial Steam release, Modern Warfare saw only moderate success, peaking at around 3,500 players on launch day. Prior to Friday's discount, its player base had dwindled to just a few hundred concurrent users.

According to SteamDB, Modern Warfare is now not only the most-played Call of Duty game on Steam but is experiencing its highest player numbers ever on the platform. Despite being nearly seven years old, fans are leaving enthusiastic reviews, with one player noting: "It's a no-brainer. The campaign is excellent, and there are some nice supplementary PvE modes like spec ops and survival."

Players are revisiting Modern Warfare's campaign, which is praised for its dark, gritty tone and memorable missions such as Clean House. IGN's review awarded it 8.2, calling it "the best CoD campaign in nearly a decade, thanks to fast pacing and great variety."

This resurgence follows the challenging launch of Black Ops 7, which has underperformed in sales compared to Black Ops 6, as reflected in European sales data and Activision's own statements. The impact of Game Pass—where Call of Duty titles now launch day-one on Microsoft's subscription service—may also affect sales, particularly on Xbox consoles. Attention now turns to Activision for the expected announcement of this year's premium Call of Duty game, rumored to be Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward.