Apparently, this year’s Modern Warfare 2 will not have a Zombies mode. This unfortunate news is not a big surprise. Zombies is usually a Treyarch-exclusive game mode save for a few exceptions. Infinity Ward previously integrated a Zombies mode for its 2016 Call of Duty game, Infinite Warfare. But, this hasn’t happened since, and 2019’s Modern Warfare didn’t have a Zombies mode either.
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) June 9, 2022 Interestingly enough, Brian Bright, who was the ex-Project Director for Infinite Warfare’s Zombies mode, had some enlightening data to show. According to Bright, “the split of IW zombies to MP daily players was close to 60% IW zombies to 40% IW MP.” In comparison, Zombies mode in Treyarch games like the Black Ops series could only “pull close to 20-30% of total players.” Furthermore, Bright added that “the split was even more in favor of IW zombies to MP” following the release of DLC 4, which came out in September 2017, nearly a year after Infinite Warfare was released in November 2016. Of course, there are several ways to interpret those numbers. On one hand, you could say that Infinite Warfare’s Zombies was more popular than the standard multiplayer because of the public perception. Infinite Warfare is widely considered one of the worst Call of Duty games in recent memory, receiving “mixed or average” reviews on the PC as gamers felt let down by the lackluster multiplayer effort. You could argue that Infinite Warfare’s Zombies mode was more popular than the standard multiplayer because gamers flocked to the “better” game at the time. Having said that, it is curious that this news comes just as Treyarch confirmed that it had big plans for Zombies. Since Activision Blizzard is giving Modern Warfare 2 a two-year lifespan and we have reports that Sledgehammer Games is working on the next Call of Duty, we can take this as proof of Treyarch’s free-to-play standalone Zombies game that’s set to come out in 2023. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about when the next Zombies mode is coming soon.
