In just over a week, Call of Duty: Warzone managed to surpass 30 million players, more than the lifetime totals most games in the series have achieved. Those were sales, however, while Warzone's army of players can jump in for free.
Being free-to-play has undoubtedly contributed to the huge player numbers, which are around the same as Apex Legends' were at this point in its life. It managed to snare 25 million players in its first week and 50 million in its first month.
Over 30 million of you have dropped in to play #Warzone. Thank you to this amazing community .Jump in and play for free now. #FreeCallofDuty pic.twitter.com/KFKhb8CNNKMarch 20, 2020
I wouldn't be surprised to see Warzone continue this trajectory, or even give Apex a run for its money come the end of its first month. It's got the Call of Duty name backing it up, which could tempt veteran CoD players who haven't previously been interested in battle royales, and more people than ever are playing online at the moment due to the coronavirus.
Warzone's relentlessly boring map put me right off, but it's managed to surprise Morgan Park, who's become a fan of Warzone's streamlined loot. It chucks out backpacks and messing around with inventories, instead only letting you pick up items you have a free equipment slot for, at which point it immediately gets added to your loadout. It's got a pretty novel approach to respawning, too.
If you're thinking of adding to the player count, check out our Call of Duty: Warzone map guide and tweak these settings to get the best performance.
