Modern Warfare 3 player count misses the mark compared to MW2 launch

With Modern Warfare 3 finally hitting the shelves, it's overall received a mixed reception from the Call of Duty community.

While the nostalgia-fueled multiplayer is being heralded as incredible by countless fans, players appear to be split on Zombies, while the Campaign has been slammed as a massive disappointment.

As you would expect, a lot of players are already making comparisons between MW3 and MW2 (2022), questioning which game is better.

From a popularity point of view, a great way to gauge excitement is through launch player counts, and unfortunately for MW3, it's fallen short of its predecessor.

MW3 peak player count is significantly lower than MW2

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According to stats from Steam Charts, Modern Warfare 3 peaked at a concurrent player count of 190,273 on the launch weekend. This is definitely an impressive number for PC and puts it as one of the most popular titles on the platform during November.

However, it's still significantly less than the Modern Warfare 2 (2022) release, which pulled in a monumental 262,875 concurrent players.

That's a difference of nearly 73,000 players, which may be a result of the mixed reception the campaign received in the lead-up to the multiplayer launch.

It's worth noting that the majority of Call of Duty players purchase the game on a console, so this is only a small sample size of the overall community. Despite this, it offers evidence that MW3 is much less exciting for CoD fans.

Does this mean Modern Warfare 3 is doomed?

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No, just because Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has fewer players at launch, it doesn't mean the title won't excel in its overall life cycle.

Sledgehammer Games has already shown that it is willing to listen to the community and implement changes quickly, which has garnered it a better reputation with players when compared to Infinity Ward.

Balance, content updates, and quality-of-life improvements will all determine the legacy of MW3, so there's still plenty of time for the new CoD title to recover and reach new heights.