The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta came back for its second and final session with more access, more content and a major gameplay patch, but it still could not top its first-weekend peak on Steam. The open portion was available on one more platform, Switch 2, without a pre-order, yet the highest concurrent count on Steam never moved past 115,145.
That makes Steam the clearest live gauge for the beta’s momentum today, even if numbers for PlayStation 5, Xbox and Switch 2 were not visible. The first weekend had set the benchmark at 115,145, and the closest the test got in the second weekend was a little over 113,000 on Friday. For a beta meant to broaden access and pull in more players, that is a quieter result than the added reach suggested.
Infinity Ward had tried to answer the first weekend’s complaints before the second began. Tactical Sprint was no longer on by default and was instead tied to the Blood Rush Perk. Slides were shortened and slowed, the delay between a slide and a jump was increased, every gun in the beta did less damage, spawns were adjusted to cut down on the opening weekend’s chaos, and Killstreaks now required one more kill across the board.
The patch was not subtle, and it was aimed at the same issues that often make or break a shooter beta: pace, damage and how quickly a match tips into disorder. The second weekend also added a sampler of Warzone’s next Resurgence map and two Ground War maps, along with everything from the first beta weekend, so the package was broader even as the movement and combat were toned down.
What the numbers show is that the changes did not lift Steam interest above the first peak, at least not in public view. The beta’s final session still drew a crowd, but the early high-water mark held, and that leaves the lingering question on the platforms where the figures were not shown: whether the extra access and the heavier patch landed differently elsewhere, or whether the second weekend simply exposed the ceiling on this version of the game.
