Modern Warfare 4 Just Achieved Something Call of Duty Hasn't Seen in 16 Years
Modern Warfare 4 is breaking a 16-year streak with an astonishing 91.8% positive rating on Steam, but there's an important catch behind its impressive early success.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is enjoying one of the strongest starts the franchise has seen on Steam in years. Early user reviews have pushed Infinity Ward's latest installment ahead of every Call of Duty released after 2010's original Black Ops, although the impressive reception comes with an important distinction: players are currently reviewing the campaign before the full game launches.
According to Steam review data recorded on October 18, 91.8% of 3,156 user reviews were positive, earning Modern Warfare 4 a "Very Positive" classification. The figures represent a remarkable early response for a franchise whose recent releases have received considerably more divided feedback from PC players.
The positive reception follows the launch of Campaign Early Access on October 16, giving digital pre-order customers an opportunity to experience the single-player story before the official October 23 release.
Modern Warfare 4 is outperforming more than a decade of Call of Duty releases on Steam
The historical comparison is particularly noteworthy.
Steam user review figures place Modern Warfare 4 above every mainline Call of Duty released after the original Black Ops in 2010. That includes Black Ops III, released in 2015, which has maintained an approximately 85% positive rating across a substantially larger review sample.
The original Black Ops remains one of the franchise's strongest performers on Steam, with roughly 91% positive reviews across all languages. Modern Warfare 4's early approval rate has narrowly exceeded that figure.
However, older releases such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 (2009) still hold higher overall positive-review percentages.
The distinction matters because Modern Warfare 4's achievement concerns the percentage of positive Steam user reviews, rather than professional review scores, sales figures or player counts.
There are also limitations to comparisons involving newer releases. Several recent Call of Duty games have accumulated reviews through the shared Call of Duty application on Steam, making direct title-by-title comparisons less straightforward.
