Perhaps one day Microsoft will realize that players will eventually tire of the annual Call of Duty releases.

The first beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has not gone as well as Microsoft, Activision, and Infinity Ward had hoped. Based on online reviews, the beta is rapidly losing players, resulting in a 50% drop in player numbers. Even during the beta period, this year’s Call of Duty is already struggling with a steep decline in players, at least on Steam.

After an initial surge, the new Call of Duty beta lost about 50% of its players. After exceeding 115,000 players, the beta dropped to 42,000, with a peak of 61,000 over the past 24 hours. This is an interesting statistic because Activision hasn’t made the beta available to everyone yet, so this number could grow. However, if a similar trend continues, those in charge might need to sound the alarm.

A large portion of the current audience consists of die-hard Call of Duty fans who pre-ordered the game to access the beta. One might expect this audience to stick with the first-person shooter, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. On social media, many fans have expressed their fatigue with the Modern Warfare series’ gameplay, which remains largely the same year after year. Some have also criticized Modern Warfare 4 for its fast-paced gameplay geared toward players who have mastered the movement system. Of course, since the beta isn’t open to everyone yet, it remains to be seen how the general public will receive Infinity Ward’s upcoming title. For now, however, the situation certainly looks concerning.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set to release on October 23 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Source: Tech4gamers, SteamDB