Call of Duty: Modern Warfare battle royale could be a standalone free game due out early 2020

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare could be getting a battle royale mode after all, except it will follow on from the main game as a standalone (and free) offering, due out early in 2020.

This is just a rumor, but it comes from a source with a solid enough track record regarding Modern Warfare leaks – YouTuber LongSensation who has some 100,000 subscribers and previously leaked the name of the next episode of Call of Duty before it was publicly known.

So, going by this, Activision’s strategy would appear to be that the battle royale won’t be an update for the core game itself, but will be downloadable for free, by anyone, to hoover up as many players as possible. In other words, it’s aiming to make a similar sort of impact as Apex Legends managed earlier this year, with a massive initial spike of interest and player numbers.

If this happens at all, of course. We’ve previously chewed over the possibilities out there which could be the next big battle royale hit, and theorized that it could come from Call of Duty. There have certainly been previous rumors which pointed to the possibility of battle royale with the game, although equally suggestions there won’t be any such mode (or that it could be implemented on a small-scale basis).

Infinity Ward hasn’t actually said either way whether there will be battle royale, although nothing has been announced yet – or denied. Indeed, the developer seems to be rather guarded about the possibility, perhaps suggesting there is more to these rumors than might seem at first glance.

Large-scale combat

Battle royale wasn’t part of the initial multiplayer reveal for Modern Warfare, although a 50 vs 50 ground war mode was shown off – and it will possibly support more than 100 players eventually. And the presence of that indicates that the game engine is designed to handle large-scale combat, of course…

The prospect of a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare spin on battle royale taking on the heavyweights of the genre like Fortnite is an exciting one indeed, but we’ll just have to see how all this speculation pans out.