Call of Duty games in order: By release date and timeline

CALL of Duty is one of the planet’s biggest gaming franchises, bringing together millions of players every year.

Altogether, the series boasts 24 entries, some of which are linked by overarching stories with characters who appear in multiple games.

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Call of Duty is one of history’s most popular gaming franchises[/caption]

Timelines within the franchise stretch back from World War II through the Vietnam War all the way to fictional conflicts set in the distant future.

Any gamer looking to play through the entire collection (you’ll need a lot of spare time on your hands) has two ways to go about it.

They could play the games in order of their release, or for a truly immersive experience, by following the franchise in timeline order.

We’ve put together a guide to completing the series one way or the other below.

AP:Associated Press

Some of the games are set in fictional wars of the future[/caption]

Call of Duty franchise release order

Here are the Call of Duty games in release order, alongside their launch dates.

To make things concise, we’ve not included the mobile games or various DLC (downloadable content) packs that have come out down the years.

• Call of Duty (2003)
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour (2004)
• Call of Duty 2 (2005)
• Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005)
• Call of Duty 3 (2006)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
• Call of Duty: World at War (2008)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)
• Call of Duty: WWII (2017)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)

AP:Associated Press

You can play through the games in order of release[/caption]

Call of Duty franchise timeline order

You can also play the games in order of when they were set.

A lot of the games jump around across time, so we’ve taken the earliest date that the campaign takes place in.

• Call of Duty: WW2 (1940)
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour (1942)
• Call of Duty: World at War (1942)
• Call of Duty 2 (1942)
• Call of Duty (1942)
• Call of Duty 3 (1944)
• Call of Duty: Big Red One (1944)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (1961)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (1960s)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (1980s)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (1999)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2011)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2016)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2016)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (2017)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2043)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2054)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2065)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2080)

Handout

Players can also play through the franchise in order of their timelines[/caption]

Call of Duty 2021 news and rumours – what to expect

In May 2021, publisher Activision confirmed that the next Call of Duty game would be developed by Sledgehammer Games.

That name will be familiar to long-time fans of the franchise.

The studio is wholly owned by Activision, and is responsible for some of the most iconic Call of Duty games.

Sledgehammer developed, co-developed or assisted with:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
• Call of Duty: WWII
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

We don’t have much in the way of hard details.

Activision has said that the game is “built for next-generation experience”.

That could mean any number of things, including advanced graphics for the PS5, Xbox and newer PC GPUs.

Or it could be linked to next-gen technologies like virtual or augmented reality.

Activision also hinted that it would “integrate with and enhance the existing COD ecosystem”.

That probably means there’ll be some link to Call of Duty Warzone, and the synchronised progress that the spin-off game offers.

However, this isn’t confirmed – Activision is being intentionally vague, given that the game is still shrouded in mystery.

We don’t know anything concrete about the storyline, though rumours are already swirling.

The big theory from tipster ModernWarzone is that the game will be called WW2: Vanguard – and will return to a World War 2 setting.

It’s claimed that the game will take place in the 1950s, in an alternate universe where World War 2 rages on.

However none of this is confirmed by Activision, so take all rumours and leaks with due caution.

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And Dell’s Alienware R10 Ryzen Edition is a gaming PC powerhouse that crushes both the new consoles.

Which CoD is your favourite? Let us know in the comments!

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