Call of Duty 4 reaches 15 million online players

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 14th 2009 3:30PM

For an almost two-year old game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare still possesses an uncanny amount of pluck. It's become a bellwether for judging modern first-person shooters, and still regularly places high in the Xbox Live activity charts. However, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling recently revealed the most convincing testimony of the game's success while accepting CoD 4's three BAFTA Awards in London earlier this week -- according to Bowling, the game's online multiplayer component has played host to just over 15 million players.

Bowling clarified that 11 million of said players joined CoD 4's ranks via Xbox Live, while over four million entered the fray on PSN. He didn't even mention how many PC gamers had gotten their war on, though we're sure that when combined with the console players, CoD 4's total online population would rival that of many average-sized countries.

Source

Tags: activision, bafta, call-of-duty-4, cod4, infinity-ward, Microsoft, psn, robert-bowling, Xbox-360, xbox-live

Reader Comments (92)

Let Craigslist be your friend. Occasionally you'll see people posting as low as $30, though $35-$40 is more common.

Frankly, I think WAW is more enjoyable, but that's just me...Cod4 does have the upper hand on a few things (more automatic weapons, better SP campaign).

is this why i can never find anyone to play with online when i log on to Unreal Tournament?

Buy the PC version like I did. Much better.

the fact no one is playing it? (except Joystiq's resident Caveman Chris Grant)

hahaha. Yeah, it was definitely a joke. I own COD4 and COD: WaW, FTW! ^_^

Are any of the WOW maps cool?
im thinking about buying it...thinking.
i do have killzone...
bah idk

I loved Cod 4 multiplayer and foolishly traded it in for COD5...yet i dont want to re-buy cod4 for the principal of it!!

I don't think anyone can dispute that COD4 was easily the most played game online of 2008, hell i think i spent a good 6 months of last year on it myself!

Will this game ever get to 20 bucks. I mean really, Almost 2 years old,World At War came out, and Modern Warfare 2 is coming out. Help a cheap person out; Lower the price okay!!.Cheap gamers wanna play good games 2.lol

the first version was real cheap then they released the goty edition and i guess the price stayed pretty high

Reason why it's not depreciating is that people are still playing it online, esp. the hardcore group that loathes WAW (which is stupid, imho). so it'll be awhile before it ever hits that $20 price point. I see it staying on indefinitely at $30.

Its still at full price in UK, but Amazon.co.uk had it on GBP20 short while back.
But, think of it, the fact that so many play it online means that they are holding on to it, whereas if you buy it only for single player you would sell it off after a few months. hence, fewer second hand copies, so retailers can afford to keep its price high.

Glad to see cod4 is doing/did so well. Unlike gears of war 2, where it failed within like 3 months.

Meh. I played this game for like 2 months then I got bored of it after I earned everything and found out that you have to earn it all back again, and the multiplayer was WAY to easy. I got COD: WAW and like the single player a hell of a lot better then 4's and I liked the multiplayer, but it's the same as 4 but with WWII weapons. So, I got sick of that fast. I have pretty much have been playing singleplayer games, and Halo 3 and screwing around with friends on GTA4 for mulitplayer.

Don't you think calling 16 months close to 2 years is a bit off? I mean, that makes the feat even more impressive. I think rounding by 8 months is a little much tho.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? You didn't get Fable 2 on release day? GTFO!!!!!!!!!

Bah its not even 15million. me and my brother have 3 PSN accounts and 4 xbox accounts. so its only 14,999,995 thats not impressive at all.lol

I own it, never gone online with it. PS3 version.

DABEARS get off the F***ing Mic!!

I'm bored by this news. If COD4 was really so exciting it would have been supported better, there's several problems still... and they're mostly caused by the last patch.

OK, the game does *not* look like that.

To they guy talking about COD4 and got rid of it but don't want to pay $50 for it, the good news is you don't have to. Check out the link below, surely you can trade a different game for a copy or buy it used at a price much lower than Gamestop.

http://www.gametz.com

Lol, CoD4 isn't even 60 bucks anymore. Your argument is invalid, therefore you fail.

What can I say about this game that 15 million can't? Its the shit and everyone agrees. I still play it and it makes my so happy.

No surprise he did not mention PC numbers. FourZeroTwo likes to pretend that version doesn't exist. He abandoned the PC forum on their site, stopped mentioning the PC version in his blog and left everyone hanging on the custom map contest like a year ago.

I see some people here commenting about FarCry 2's multiplayer. Are there a lot of people who play it? Is it as cool as it sounds, what with the map-making and stuff?

And yeah, I've def seen COD4 for 40 bucks now. That seems to be the standard price. I still need to pick it up.

I say go for it. But if you have a PS3, pick up Killzone 2. You won't have time to play COD4 with Killzone 2 in your drive lol.

yup yup... i love this game so much

ohh Yea if anyone want to play me. add breezygurl on ps3. and yes im a girl

Soon you shall have an average-sized country at your disposal.

ok....watever that means
just add breezygurl on ps3 and watch wat happens

god damn this new ps3fanboy sucks. news are irrelevant and hard to come by. i wished they stuck to the old one. ps3 fanboy has lost its identity.

I miss the smaller community on ps3fanboy too. *sighs* Stupid economy and subprime mortgage lenders...

This is what happens when publishers insist on keeping games full price for too long. See also: Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Tetris DS...

Does anyone know if COD4 has more players on Xbox than Halo 3? Any link to a source would help.

Last list released had CoD4 trailing only behind Halo 3.

does this still mean that treyach got slapped after copying the ENTIRE engine of IW and still cant get their numbers up?

It would be really nice if they decided to patch the game so people can't hack it anymore....I am tired of putting an entire clip of an M60 or SAW into someones back only to find that, while I see them standing there, they aren't actually there anymore...but the game is too old and while they acknowledge that the hack exists, they won't take the time and money to patch it when they are working on COD:MW2

About how many people are playing CoD4 on PS3 at any given time?

I've played CoD4 on PC, then the 360, and when I got my PS3 I bought WaW.

While WaW is a good game, it's no CoD4. However, I don't want to get CoD4 on PS3 if there aren't many people playing it.

Each time I play, it seems that CoD4 on the 360 has about the same number of people as WaW players on PS3.

People are still playing COD4 cause it's a damn solid game. Just like people are still playing Halo. There is a game out there for everyone's tastes. I like Halo cause I like to run and gun sometimes and not think so much about strategy. But I love COD4 for the weapon upgrades, no team killing, less people quitting online, no rushing for weapons, stealthy gameplay. I tried WAW this weekend for 2 days online and I just don't see what the fuss is about. It plays the same only the maps are WAY too big and the system respawns you close together... that's why there is more action. You can die way more often in that title than COD4. I admit.. I just played for about 2 days... but modern weapons and technology are so much better. Hell, even the black dot scopes are hard to see when EVERYTHING blends in with the environment. I'm not a fan of the cheapass tanks either. I'm definitely glad about holding onto COD4 and look forward to MW2 this fall. I think I'm done with WWII... but that's just me.

If only they wouldn't have abandoned the game after one half-assed DLC map pack. MW2 should be better but I hope they learned that sticking around till 3 would be worth it for everyone involved.

yo if you guys are looking for a website to show off your skills in COD4 or any other game you should check out r3match.com they have ladders for all sorts of games and prizes for tournaments. Just check it out and sign up!

yo add me on ps3 if u want to play me
PSN: breezygurl
(yes i'm a gurl)

Previous 50 Comments

Call of Duty 4 reaches 15 million online players

Reader Comments (92)

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