MW4 Release Date and Unlock Times: When Modern Warfare 4 Goes Live

Three dates matter before Modern Warfare 4 goes live, and they are all confirmed by Activision.

The three dates

Date	What happens	Who it applies to
October 15, 9AM PT	PC preloading opens	Digital pre-purchases on PC
October 16	Campaign Early Access starts	Anyone who pre-ordered digitally
October 23, midnight local time	Full launch	Everyone, all platforms

Platforms at launch: PC (Xbox on PC, Battle.net and Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. Not Xbox One, and not on Game Pass: the short answers to all of those.

What "midnight local time" actually means

The game unlocks at midnight where you are, not at one global moment. There is no countdown that everyone watches together, which is why launch day looks staggered across social media: New Zealand is in first, then Australia and Asia, then Europe, then the Americas.

That is also the whole basis of the region trick people use every year. If your console or account region sits further east, the game unlocks earlier for you. We wrote that up separately in how to play MW4 early with the New Zealand trick.

Want the exact time left where you are? Our MW4 countdown runs on your own clock.

Preload: October 15

PC preloading opens on October 15 at 9AM PT for digital pre-purchases. You need 115 GB free on an SSD, and that is the same requirement at every spec tier.

Worth doing in the same week: install the Xbox PC app regardless of which store you play on. Advanced Shader Delivery, previously called Shader Preloading, uses it to push precompiled shaders to you before launch and through live updates, which is what makes the game boot faster. The full requirement list is in MW4 system requirements.

Campaign Early Access: October 16

Digital pre-orders get into the campaign a week early, from October 16. Multiplayer, Warzone and DMZ are not part of that, they open at full launch on the 23rd. Details on what is included: MW4 Campaign Early Access.

What to have ready before the 23rd

• Preloaded and patched. The recommended drivers are AMD 26.7.1, NVIDIA 616.56 and Intel 32.0.101.8974. Call of Duty says an ASD compatible NVIDIA driver lands on October 21, two days before launch.
• 2XP tokens saved. Tokens now only burn during match time instead of real time, confirmed in the Ward Room. Launch week is when they are worth the most.
• A plan for the grind. The camo challenges go live at launch and nobody has them yet, see MW4 mastery camos. If you would rather have the first week done for you, MW4 weapon leveling and camo boosts are open for pre-order and start when servers go up.

Source

• Call of Duty Blog, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 PC Trailer, Tech Updates, and More", September 29, 2026: callofduty.com