Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Beta: How to Get Early Access Without Pre-Ordering

The second weekend of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta is live now which is great news for anyone who pre-ordered a digital version of the game to get early access to the beta. It’s also live on the PC and Xbox One platforms for the first time which means that more players than before can get into the game now, but only if you got early access. For those who didn’t pre-order, there’s one more way to get into the beta, and it involves something you likely already would’ve been doing regardless if you don’t yet have access to the beta.

As detailed by Activision this week ahead of the return of the Black Ops Cold War beta, the easiest way to get into the beta before it opens up to everyone and without pre-ordering is through the Twitch Drops rewards feature we’ve seen enabled in past Call of Duty games. Twitch Drops are earned through watching people play Black Ops Cold War anytime before the end of day on October 16th which means you’ve got plenty of time to watch others, strategize, and get your own beta code to hop in. You have to watch a minimum of four hours of gameplay to qualify for the Twitch Drop though, so don’t expect to pop in and out with your Twitch Drop.

Because this way of accessing the beta is found through Twitch Drops, the beta code you’ll get is only good for the PC version of the game. That leaves out Xbox One users who haven’t pre-ordered since they’ll still have to wait a bit longer, but if you’ve got a PC that can handle the game, you can get a head start. Cross-play integration in Black Ops Cold War’s beta means that you can still play with your friends even if they’re on a different platform as well.

Below you’ll find the instructions for setting up your Twitch and Battle.net accounts and what you’ll need to do to get the Twitch Drop and access to the beta.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Beta Access via Twitch Drops

1. Link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts
2. Verify that your Battle.net account is linked
3. Log into Twitch and watch Black Ops Cold War streams that have “Drops Enabled”
4. Watch Twitch streams for at least four hours
5. Return to the Battle.net app after getting a notification and start playing the beta

The Black Ops Cold War beta will soon be available for all to play on October 17th, so whether you get early access or not, you’ll have a shot at it soon.