Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Release Date, Platforms and the Race Against GTA 6

Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23, 2026, on PS5, Xbox, PC and Switch 2, four weeks before GTA VI. Release date, early access, price, Game Pass and why the date matters.

CAESVRA JournalOctober 16, 20263 min read

This fall has two giants, and they are four weeks apart. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on Friday, October 23, 2026. GTA VI follows on November 19. Here is what you need to know about MW4, and why its date is no accident.

The short version

Release date: Friday, October 23, 2026.
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, all on the same day.
No PS4 or Xbox One: the first modern Call of Duty to skip the last console generation.
Campaign early access: from October 16, 2026, for pre-orders.
Price: $69.99 Standard, $99.99 Vault Edition on the Xbox Store.
Game Pass: not on day one.

Setting and story

Modern Warfare 4 is set in the present day. A fictional new leader of North Korea invades South Korea. You play Private Park, a young recruit, while Captain Price leads a rogue alliance outside Task Force 141. Missions also take you to New York, Paris and Mumbai. The DMZ mode returns.

Infinity Ward leads development. Beenox handles the PC version and Digital Legends the Switch 2 version, with Treyarch, Sledgehammer, Raven and High Moon supporting.

Call of Duty on Switch 2

This is the first new Call of Duty on a Nintendo console in years, and it launches the same day as on every other platform. Switch 2 players also got into the open beta from August 28 to September 1.

Is Modern Warfare 4 on Game Pass?

Not at launch. In April 2026, Microsoft lowered Game Pass prices and said new Call of Duty games will join Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass the following holiday season, so about a year after release.

Editions and early access

	Standard	Vault Edition
Price (Xbox Store)	$69.99	$99.99
Campaign early access	with pre-order	with pre-order

The campaign early access for pre-orders starts on October 16, 2026, a week before the full launch.

Why October 23 matters

Publishers have spent two years trying not to release anywhere near GTA VI. Christopher Dring of The Game Business put it this way in June: late October is the latest you can launch without getting pulled into the "Rockstar black hole".

MW4 sits exactly there, 27 days before GTA VI. Activision is not hiding from the comparison either. Its chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl told The Game Business that GTA and Call of Duty are the two biggest games of the year, and argued that GTA will bring lapsed players back to consoles, which helps Call of Duty too.

To be clear: October 23 has been MW4's date since its reveal in May. There is no report that Activision moved it because of GTA.

Before and after

Call of Duty comes every year. GTA comes once a decade. This fall, the yearly ritual gets four weeks of attention before the once-in-a-decade release. After November 19, the question is not which game is bigger, but how many people can play both.

See the full fall lineup in our games release calendar around GTA 6.