MW4 Open Beta: Times, How to Play Free, and What's In It

The Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta opens on Friday 28 August at 10:00 a.m. PT and runs until Tuesday 1 September. It is free for everyone on every platform — no pre-order, no beta code, nothing to buy.

It is also the bigger of the beta’s two weekends. Warzone, Ground War, Nintendo Switch 2 and the top ten player levels were all held back for this one, which means the weekend that costs nothing contains more than the weekend that cost £60.

Here are the times, the pre-load steps for each platform, and everything that is actually in it.

When does the MW4 Open Beta start and end?

It opens at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on Friday 28 August and closes at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday 1 September. Activision publishes times in Pacific, so here is that start time in a few other places:

Pre-load opened earlier, at 9:00 a.m. PT on Wednesday 26 August, on every platform. If you install ahead of time you can be in a match at the minute it opens rather than watching a progress bar.

The paid Early Access weekend has already finished — it ran 21 to 25 August and needed a pre-order or a promotional code. Beta codes are no longer useful for anything: Activision’s own guidance is that they only ever applied to Early Access. The full game launches on Friday 23 October 2026, with Campaign early access on 16 October for digital pre-orders.

How do you play the MW4 Open Beta for free?

You download it and you play it. There is no eligibility step at all this weekend — no pre-order, no code, no subscription to Activision, on any of the six platforms.

That is the whole answer, and it is worth stating plainly because the first weekend had real access rules and a lot of writing about them is still circulating. Those rules expired on 25 August.

Two small caveats that are not about eligibility:

• An online multiplayer subscription may be required, per Activision’s own footnote — that means the platform’s own service, so PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass Core where your platform normally requires one for online play. That is a platform rule, not a Call of Duty one.
• Sign in with an Activision Account before you play. Beta rewards attach to that profile, and it is what carries them into the full game in October. Skipping it is the one way to play all weekend and keep none of the unlocks.

How do you pre-load and launch it on your platform?

Pre-load has been live since 26 August on all six platforms, and the steps differ enough per platform to be worth listing. In every case the beta appears as its own item — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta — separate from the full game.

The Xbox on PC row is the one to act on. On every other platform a completed pre-load means you are ready. On Xbox on PC the early download is partial by design and the rest only becomes available at 7:00 a.m. PT on the day — so leave yourself that window rather than starting it at 10:00.

Nintendo Switch 2 is new this weekend. The platform was not part of Early Access at all, so Switch 2 owners get the beta here or not at all. Pre-orders for the full game on Switch 2 opened alongside the pre-load on 26 August, but you do not need one to play.

What can you play in the Open Beta?

Six 6v6 maps, seven modes, a 24v24 mode, a Warzone map, a training course — and a Campaign mission. Progression runs from Level 1 to 30, and if you played Weekend One you continue from where you stopped rather than starting again.

The Campaign mission is the genuinely unusual thing. “Entrenched” is the first Campaign mission ever playable in a Call of Duty beta. You fight alongside friendly infantry and armour in a large-scale assault to stop a strategically vital nuclear power station falling into enemy hands.

Seven Core 6v6 modes: Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed, Search and Destroy, and two new ones. Inflation makes every elimination build your fortune while turning you into a more valuable target. Hijack is new to this weekend — you move a Data Spike to the enemy Comm Station and plant it to score, while defenders race to defuse.

Kill Block reconfigures every two rounds into a fresh Combo of three interconnected “Slabs”, each Combo bringing a randomised shared loadout. Gunfight runs there in classic 3v3 and a 10v10 variant exclusive to Kill Block. Win by eliminating the other team or capturing the Overtime Flag.

Ground War is 24v24 across two large-scale Combat Outpost battlegrounds in the Haijin region — one rural, built around open farmland, waterways and a large mill with roads and rail lines; one urban, centred on the Wolves Stadium with multi-storey buildings, transit lines, tunnels and rooftops.

Warzone Resurgence runs on the all-new Zodiac, the DRC Advanced Systems drone assembly headquarters. You move from the Admin building beneath a double Trackline with multiple trains toward the R&D facility and shipping docks, with an underground tunnel network for rotating and flanking. Loadouts are defaults for the beta: AR, SMG, LMG or Sniper.

The Mobility Course is a dedicated training facility for the expanded movement system — guided tutorials first, then timed courses you can return to and improve on.

On the loadout side:

Gunsmith returns alongside two new systems: Apex Attachments, unlocked by fully levelling a supported weapon and applied without using an attachment slot, and Gunny, which recommends builds from attachments you already own.

A note on those last two rows: Activision’s own pages give different totals — 17 Killstreaks and 18 Perks on one, 10 and 16 on another. The numbers above are counted from the itemised lists Activision prints, which contain exactly ten Killstreaks and fifteen Perks by name.

Which unlocks need this weekend specifically?

Five: Missile Salvo, Combat Drone, Ghost, Battle Hardened and Cold-Blooded. All five unlock above Level 20, and Level 20 was the hard cap on the paid Early Access weekend — so no amount of playing that weekend could reach them.

That inverts the usual shape of a Call of Duty beta. Early Access normally means seeing more, earlier; here it meant seeing the same content four days earlier and then hitting a ceiling. The two most powerful Killstreaks on the list and the three most situational Perks — including Ghost, historically one of the most argued-about perks in the series — are only reachable in the weekend that costs nothing.

What maps are in the MW4 Open Beta?

Six Core 6v6 maps, one more than Early Access had. The addition is Lithium. They are deliberately varied — no two share an engagement range, and only one of the six is set in the United States.

Those six sit alongside Kill Block, the two Ground War Combat Outpost maps and Warzone’s Zodiac. Activision says more Core maps arrive at launch.

What rewards can you earn in the Open Beta?

Eight rewards on a level ladder, running from Level 4 to Level 30 and earnable only during the beta. They are usable immediately once unlocked and carry into the full game at launch. Because the ladder now runs to 30 and this weekend’s cap is 30, all eight are reachable this weekend — which was not true of Early Access.

There is more outside the ladder: three emblems, three calling cards, a spray and three loading screens are available by default, the Mobility Course Challenge gives a Clockwork Charm, and Combat Record rewards include a weapon blueprint, emblem and charm that Activision is still keeping classified.

Twitch Drops run on top of all of it, if you link your Activision and Twitch accounts:

How much of the full game does the beta actually contain?

Roughly two thirds of the weapons and half the core maps, on Activision’s own figures. The beta is a slice rather than a preview of everything.

Everything else — more modes, more Killstreaks, more Perks, more Operators — is described by Activision as expanding at launch without a published number, so there is no honest ratio to give for those.

Development is led by Infinity Ward, with the Nintendo Switch 2 version built natively in partnership with Digital Legends and the PC versions handled with Beenox.

What is not in the beta?

It is not the full game, and it is explicitly a test. Activision publishes patch notes throughout the beta covering bug fixes, gameplay adjustments and new maps and modes, so what is live on Friday is not necessarily what is live on Monday.

The concrete gaps:

• Six of the twelve launch Core maps are absent, along with eleven of the thirty-three weapons.
• No Campaign beyond the single mission. “Entrenched” is one mission; the Campaign proper starts 16 October for digital pre-orders and 23 October for everyone.
• Beta rewards are beta-only. The eight-step ladder cannot be earned after 1 September, though what you unlock stays with you into the full game.
• The Open Beta has a stated minimum, not a guaranteed length. Activision’s footnote commits to a minimum of two days and reserves the right to change dates, times and platform availability.

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