Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Early Access: How to Play Before Launch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is officially launching later this month, but players can get early access to the campaign this week. The game, developed by Infinity Ward, arrives on October 23, 2026, across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

This is the first Call of Duty to launch only on current-gen consoles, meaning there is no PlayStation 4 or Xbox One version. The early access window begins on Friday, October 16, one week before the full release. Activision has not announced a specific start time, but based on prior launches, access is expected to roll out from 6pm BST in the UK.

How to Get Early Access

Early access is available to those who pre-order either the standard edition (£69.99) or the Vault edition (£99.99) of Modern Warfare 4, across any platform. This applies only to digital pre-orders, so physical pre-orders do not receive the same bonus. Players must order from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, Steam, or Battle.net to qualify.

The early access window grants access to specific parts of the game over two separate waves. From October 16, players can play the campaign, while early access to the DMZ extraction mode begins on October 20. The multiplayer portion will not be available during early access and will launch worldwide when the full game comes out on October 23.

Pre-Order Bonuses

Pre-ordering the standard edition unlocks the Inner Circuit Weapon Blueprint, the Hunter Killer Operator skin, and the Gilded Pearl Camo Pack. The latter two items are also available across Warzone and Black Ops 7.

The Vault edition includes all of the above, plus four operator skins in the Hostile Alliance Operator Pack (Price, Valeria, Ghost, Blix), the Special Forces Operator Pack, the Signature Weapon Collection, the DMZ Deployment Bonus, and the BlackCell season one pass, which comes with 20 tier skips and 1,100 CP.

For regular Call of Duty: Mobile players, any digital pre-order of Modern Warfare 4 will unlock the Shattered Relay Weapon Blueprint for the ICR-1 Assault Rifle in that title.