Every Call of Duty Game, Ranked Worst To Best
Sebastian Wright
Published Mar 29, 2026
Since 2003 Call of Duty has gone from Nazi Germany to the modern day and to outer space and back again, with plenty of ups and downs along the way.
The recent dawn of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 marks the fourth console generation to feature Activision's Call of Duty as a headline-grabbing franchise. Bursting onto the scene in 2003 with the PC-centric shooter that launched a thousand games based in World War 2, Call of Duty has been everywhere from the battlefields of Normandy to outer space and back again. With several different developers working on entries set in different time periods, it's hard to express what binds the series other than Activision's logo. Despite that, fans looking through the many entries of the series can easily tell when Call of Duty is firing on all cylinders and when it takes the boots off the ground.
Because of the enormity of the series, this ranking will focus on the mainline entries and its console-exclusive shooters. This excludes quite a few portable and mobile games, including what is undoubtedly the worst sequel in franchise history. Released on the PlayStation Vita, Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified is leagues below anything else bearing the CoD branding thanks to its laughably short campaign and shoddy multiplayer offerings. On the flip side, several Call of Duty ports to the Nintendo DS showed impressive-at-the-time graphics and controls for the handheld.
One thing is clear when looking at the franchise's history. As long as a game feels like Call of Duty, fans are willing to run with just about everything. From the great global wars to modern conflicts, from multiplayer arenas to bombastic campaigns and the realms of the undead, here is a tour of duty through Call of Duty history.
#21 - Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts - The Worst Call of Duty Game
Developed on the PlayStation 2 alongside Treyarch's last trip to World War 2, World at War – Final Fronts is a PlayStation 2 exclusive campaign developed by Rebellion. The team has thrived in the setting before with their own Sniper Elite series, but the AI issues and lack of multiplayer make this odd Call of Duty footnote well worth skipping.
#20 - Call of Duty: Finest Hour
Another console-exclusive entry in the time when current consoles couldn't run the same Call of Duty games as PCs, Finest Hour provided a sneak peek at the franchise to players on GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. Featuring online multiplayer and some exclusive modes, it was a fine entry for its day but clearly hampered by its status as a spin-off.
#19 - Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
The last of the console-exclusive spinoffs, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is the first Call of Duty game helmed by Black Ops creators Treyarch. The campaign follows a specific squadron of soldiers in World War 2 and features unique documentary-style presentation thanks to footage provided by The Military Channel and narration by noted voice actor Mark Hamill.
#18 - Call of Duty: Ghosts
One of the few singular entries in the mainline Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Ghosts proved to be a false start for developer Infinity Ward as they tried to start something new after Modern Warfare's grand finale.
While critics at the time praised the game's unique player vs. aliens mode and its multiplayer additions, the campaign fell far short of normal expectations.
#17 - Call of Duty: WWII
Call of Duty: WWII is a fine return to the roots of the series, but it does not strive much beyond that. With gameplay and a story that hits similar notes as the original Call of Duty and its two direct sequels, WWII only serves to prove why many franchises abandoned the fight against Nazis after so many repetitive years.
#16 - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Introducing spaceships and a war for the solar system, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare takes the series into the farthest tomorrow yet seen. Infinity Ward's take on a futuristic Call of Duty fell flat with many fans who wanted more grounded and modern combat, but the meaty campaign and futuristic weapons did find their own fans in the end.
#15 - Call of Duty: Black Ops III
The third Black Ops game stretches the conspiracy theory-laden plot to the absolute maximum in a future filled with augmented super soldiers and optional zombie infestations.
While Call of Duty: Black Ops III is one of the most feature-packed entries in the Call of Duty franchise, it also felt like a stopgap in both the progress of the main series and the Black Ops games.
#14 - Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
That latest entry in the series feels just as perfunctory as Black Ops III, and for good reason. With more and more focus going into the franchise-spanning Warzone, the standalone aspects of Cold War feel like side features to an ongoing service game. Add in the controversies generated by focusing on the Regan-era of politics and the whole game feels like it may be one of the less-remembered entries in Call of Duty history despite its record-breaking sales numbers.
#13 - Call of Duty 3
Treyarch's first mainline entry in the Call of Duty franchise (and the only mainline entry not released on PC) feels like a testing ground for what was to come in their Black Ops games. The campaign is similar in scope to other console-exclusive spinoffs and the multiplayer feels like a small iteration on the first two games in the series. Call of Duty 3 is on the cusp of greatness, but that would come later.
#12 - Call of Duty: Vanguard
It's been rare to see a Call of Duty launch with a whimper rather than a thud, but Vanguard arrives amidst a company-wide controversy at Activision. The game itself finds itself described as a stopgap entry in the franchise more than once in reviews, with complaints also hitting on a brief, lackluster campaign. While there are some innovations in the Zombies offering that make it slightly better than 2020's game, the multiplayer is a known quantity that suffers the same shrouded fate as anything released with Black Ops Cold War.
#11 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Developed by the remnants of Infinity Ward and an assisting Sledgehammer Games following Jason West and Vince Zampella's public breakup with Activision, Modern Warfare 3 wraps up the trilogy in a muted fashion. The campaign fails to reach the heights of its two predecessors and finds little wiggle room in its story to push things further. Multiplayer and a wave-based Special Ops mode help its case, but Modern Warfare 3 can't overcome the strife of its own development.
#10 - Call of Duty
The war shooter that launched a thousand war shooters, Infinity Ward's original Call of Duty was a distinctive title for its age that innovated by presenting multiple fronts of the great war against the Nazis.
The original Call of Duty game would get an expansion pack campaign and eventually find its way to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN as a downloadable title, showing off its longevity.
#9 - Call of Duty 2
Whereas Call of Duty was simply another excellent FPS set in World War II, Call of Duty 2 began to mold what modern audiences now know from the series. Introducing both regenerating health and grenade indicators, among other series staples, Call of Duty 2 sets the stage for future installments while also improving almost everything from the original game.
#8 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
The feature that pushes Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 over the top is its nonlinear campaign. Shaking up the common formula, Black Ops 2 gave players choices in their missions and more flexibility than many campaigns in the franchise both before and after this release. Black Ops 2 also established Zombies as its own mode outside of a horde-type scenario, setting the stage for a huge aspect of Call of Duty going forward.
#7 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
The only mainline Call of Duty released without a single-player campaign, Black Ops 4 makes up for the subtraction with the introduction of Blackout mode. This is the battle royale precursor to Call of Duty Warzone, porting the excellent combat of the game's multiplayer mode to a wider battlefield filled with references to past entries in the subseries.
#6 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
The first solo effort in the series from Sledgehammer Games is also the only Call of Duty to get the future right. Advanced Warfare struck a balance between the game's traditional combat and futuristic additions with its Exo suit.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare also had great casting from gaming legend Troy Baker and several Hollywood stars in both its campaign and Exo-Zombies modes.
#5 - Call of Duty: World at War
The first game in Treyarch's ongoing Call of Duty narrative, Call of Duty: World at War introduces several elements that would go on to become Black Ops staples. The addition of flamethrowers and the "dolphin dive" to the series gave the developer its own distinctive voice that would carry forward into every Black Ops title. World at War also marks that last great World War 2 game in the series to date.
#4 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
A return to form for both the Modern Warfare name and the Call of Duty franchise as a whole, the rebooted Modern Warfare captures everything players love about the series in one full-sized package. The campaign brings back familiar characters and takes them down alternate story paths, and the multiplayer pulls together all that the developers have learned into a game that's easy to sink hours into. All that and the introduction of the massive Warzone battle royale mode makes Modern Warfare the best current game in Call of Duty history.
#3 - Call of Duty: Black Ops
The release of Call of Duty: Blacks Ops signaled to the world that the franchise had more to offer than Modern Warfare and that Treyarch wasn't the B-team anymore. A dynamic Cold War-era storyline introducing Mason and the numbers took the world by storm, launching a sub-brand that has retained more popularity than any other. Treyarch solidified its take on Call of Duty and helped solidify the brand as an annual juggernaut.
#2 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
If Call of Duty: Black Ops solidified the franchise's standing as one of the top names in the industry, the original Modern Warfare started that journey.
Stepping out of World War 2 for the first time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare proved that the audience was ready for a new style of FPS. The game inspired countless imitators and influenced first-person shooter games for years to come, but it wasn't the best that Infinity Ward had to offer.
#1 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - The Best Call of Duty Game
Call of Duty, at the height of its power, emerges smack dab in the middle of the Xbox 360 era with a blockbuster campaign and addictive multiplayer that's still second to none. From the famous "No Russian" scene to the glorious Spec Ops mode, there are plenty of hints that Activision's franchise is still riding on the momentum unleashed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
