Modern Warfare 4 Beta Adding a Major New Feature for the First Time in Call of Duty History

August 14, 2026, 11:30am

Activision has today announced that the upcoming beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will be adding a major new feature for the first time in the franchise’s history. For well over a decade at this point, each new Call of Duty entry has held a beta prior to the game’s eventual launch later in the year. However, up until this point, each Call of Duty beta has only centered around multiplayer, with other game modes not being playable until the full version of the title arrives. Now, Activision is finally changing this strategy and will be giving Call of Duty fans the ability to check out the Campaign of Modern Warfare 4 as part of the beta as well.

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Upon its start date next week on August 21st, the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta will allow players to experience the mission “Entrenched” from the game’s single-player Campaign. This represents the first time that Activision has ever granted access to a Campaign mission from any of its Call of Duty titles ahead of time, which makes this year’s beta even more enticing to jump into.

Although the advent of this Campaign mission is a big deal, the Modern Warfare 4 beta will still predominantly center around multiplayer. To that end, Activision will give players the chance to play nine different game modes across six different maps. During the beta’s second weekend, the massive Ground War mode will also be available to play within two maps.

When Does the Modern Warfare 4 Beta Take Place?

As mentioned, the beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set to kick off next week on August 21st and will run until August 25th. This inaugural beta phase is set to only be available to those who have pre-ordered the game and will be live across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

The following week, on August 28th, however, is when the open beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will begin. This beta will remain live until September 1st and will allow anyone and everyone to check out MW4 for themselves. While this open beta will generally be the same as the one in early access, it will also happen to be live on Nintendo Switch 2 platforms. In addition, Call of Duty: Warzone will be holding a beta of its own during this time for its new Resurgence Zodiac map.

As for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 itself, the full game will then go live a little over a month later on October 23rd. Those looking to experience Modern Warfare 4 even earlier will be able to start playing the Campaign on October 16th by pre-ordering the game digitally.