Call of Duty: Warzone now has more than 50 million players one month after launch

Call of Duty: Warzone, the new battle royale (BR) mode from developer Infinity Ward, now has more than 50 million players, publisher Activision announced on Friday. The milestone, which Warzone reached just one month after its release, makes the game one of the fastest-growing free-to-play titles in the game industry. Warzone previously hit 30 million players just under two weeks after launch.

Unlike Activision’s previous lackluster attempt at a battle royale title, Blackout, which was made available only within 2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Warzone was released as a standalone download on consoles and PC. It does not require players own any other software or pay any money to play it, which has greatly helped its popularity.

Warzone now has a sizable player base, having hit the 50 million-player mark at roughly the same speed as competing BR game Apex Legends. Fortnite, of course, has more than 250 million players now, having released in late 2017 and now available on consoles, PC, and mobile.

Still, Activision and Infinity Ward’s success here illustrates that the BR genre, while having lost a lot of its luster since it effectively consumed the first-person shooter market three years ago, still has plenty of room for new ideas and interesting takes on the now-trademark design of these types of games.