Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods — along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.
Although it’s one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty’s quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we’ve ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn’t play a particular game.
These are all the Call of Duty games ranked from worst to best.
Modern Warfare III was meant to mark the 20th anniversary of the franchise but ultimately fell flat and is one of the most disappointing launches in the series history. A lackluster campaign relied too much on nostalgia, got lazy with Open Combat Missions that were basically single-player Warzone missions, and was overall too generic to be exciting. While the multiplayer aspect of the game was as fun as always, this was the first COD entry to launch without any new, original maps, instead settling for map remakes from MW3 (2011). “Coupling all of these aggravating elements with a single-player mode that feels cobbled together by Dr. Frankenstein, Modern Warfare 3 is the most substantial step back for a franchise that has been inching forward for nearly a decade, wrote Billy Givens in Digital Trends’ two-and-a-half-star review of the game. “The short and forgettable story isn’t remotely absorbing, and its multiplayer has no identity in an ever-expanding sea of more unique shooters.”
No matter how much you love the Call of Duty franchise, you must admit that some iterations are just better than others. With our advice, you know which games to avoid, so you can start playing the cream of the crop immediately. By following our recommendations on the best games in the series, you’ll get to experience all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses.
The Call of Duty series has successfully produced a line of outstanding shooter games. One of the things that players love about the franchise is its consistency. Players know what to expect from the series, and are rarely disappointed, so they go out and buy release after release. The series gains more avid players and repeat customers by the minute, reaping enormous profits, which they utilize to create the next best game in the series and perpetuate its legendary legacy as one of the best gaming franchises in history.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.