Modern Warfare 4 Beta Numbers Plummet As Reviews Hit Mixed

Modern Warfare 4 Beta Has Lost Almost Half Of Its Steam CCU Image provided by Activision and Xbox. Published Aug 23, 2026, 10:59 AM EDT George is the Lead News Editor for TheGamer, and has been working in the industry since 2021 after graduating from the University of South Wales with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He has also previously written for RPG Site, WhatCulture, and PlayStation Lifestyle. George is an expert on platformers, action games, and fighters, but tends to play as many releases as possible. This hands-on experience lets him dive into gaming communities and follow the latest trends. Some of the games George has extensively covered first-hand include Dead Rising, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s open beta started off pretty strong on its opening day, but has now lost nearly half of its CCU on Steam in just 24 hours. I know that Call of Duty is generally a lightning rod for a lot of hate in the gaming industry, but Modern Warfare 4 seemed to be on a more positive track, especially compared to MW3. Its unique setting, improved movement, and even further refined gunplay made it seem sure to be received a lot more positively than last year’s Black Ops 7. The jury is still out on that, but Modern Warfare 4’s beta that went live two days ago was our first real shot of seeing what players thought. It seems that, on PC at least, it’s not made a massive impact, as the concurrent player count on Steam has been slashed in half in just 24 hours as the review score drops to “Mixed”. Modern Warfare 4 Beta Drops By Nearly 50 Percent In 24 Hours It’s Hovering Under 50k As Of The Time Of Writing Image via the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 store page. As SteamDB’s data shows, Modern Warfare 4’s open beta kicked off to 115,145 players on Steam alone, which is a strong start overall. That number quickly dropped, though, with it hitting 51,582 after 24 hours. That’s not just a temporary drop, either, as the 24-hour peak was just over 60,000, suggesting that a good chunk of players haven’t bothered coming back. It is worth considering that the beta is currently early access through pre-orders and code drops. That being said, you’d think that means it’s the most dedicated COD players and the numbers would reflect that. As of the time of writing, the beta is currently sitting at around 46,000 players and not showing any signs of recovering so far. While this does just represent one of the consoles that Modern Warfare 4 is playable on, it’s the only accurate player tracking that we have and is usually fairly representative of the game as a whole. The Steam reviews for Modern Warfare 4’s beta seem to support the idea that it’s not gelling with players, as they’re currently “Mixed” with 45 percent of the reviews being negative. Those reviews call out the aim assist, time-to-kill, strange spawns, auto-aim, maps, and pretty much everything about Modern Warfare 4 so far. One review even says it’s “like scrolling through TikTok”. I’ve actually played a bit of the beta myself and had a good time with it, although I don’t generally take Call of Duty too seriously and play a few hours here or there. I can’t imagine that the recent backlash against the use of AI is helping things much, but I guess we’ll see if things improve when the truly open beta launches next week. Triple-A Games Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Steam