There’s no better game than the COD when it comes to first-person shooter games. Now you may have been a true player of the Call of Duty games, but it is essential to know the correct order of each title and when the campaign was based. 

Here, we have a list of the games in chronological order, and according to the timelines they were based in. Find out all about them and get started on playing! 

How Many Call of Duty Games are there?

In the Call of Duty games, you will find 21 games, which started in 2003, and the call of duty series is still ongoing in 2022. 

Call of Duty Games in Order

1. Call of Duty (2003)

Release date: October 29, 2003

Call of Duty was a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the first game in the Call of Duty series.

It was released in 2003 and became an instant success, selling over 4 million copies in its first five days. As of May 2015, the game has sold over 250 million copies worldwide. It’s one of the best-selling video games of all time, alongside Tetris and Grand Theft Auto V.

2. Call of Duty 2 (2005)

Release date: October 25, 2003

Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. The game’s single-player campaign follows Private First Class Joseph Allen as he participates in World War II after being recruited into the British Special Air Service (SAS) to take down Nazi Germany’s nuclear weapon project in Norway.

3. Call of Duty 3 (2006)

Release date: November 7, 2006

Call of Duty 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, and GameCube.

The game follows a United States Marine participating in a mission to capture an Al-Qaeda terrorist leader in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. The player also takes control of Marines during various missions to complete objectives such as rescuing hostages or destroying enemy weapons caches.

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

Release date: November 6, 2007

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is in the Call of Duty series. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

It is a first-person shooter video game. The player assumes the role of Private Jackson “Jack” Mitchell, a newly enlisted member of Task Force 141 sent to find and rescue Private Soap MacTavish from a Russian gulag near the Arctic Circle during World War II.

The game’s plot is set in 2011 and follows the events between Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War.

5. Call of Duty: World at War (2008)

Release date: November 11, 2008

The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 consoles.

Its story revolves around Private John Riley, who leads a squad into Berlin during the final days of World War II to find Adolf Hitler’s secret bunker to stop his plans for world domination.

6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Release date: November 10, 2009

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and the seventh main installment in the Call of Duty series. The game continues the story from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as Private Gary “Roach” Sanderson, Private Alexei “Reaper” Mikoyan, and Private Michael “Soap” MacTavish is sent on a mission to rescue CIA agent Joseph Allen from an enemy prison in Russia.

The player assumes control over all three characters during missions as they fight through Russia to find Joseph Allen.

7. Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)

Release date: November 9, 2010

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It was released for the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The game features a Cold War setting with a fictional future history.

The player takes the role of Alex Mason, imprisoned in Cuba after being framed for the murder of his mentor and CIA operative Jason Hudson. The player must escape Cuba to clear Mason’s name and discover what happened to Hudson.

8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)

Release date: November 8, 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) is the third installment in the Call of Duty series, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and it was later released on November 11 for OS X and December 6 for iOS.

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012)

Release date: November 12, 2012

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a first-person shooter video game developed by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. The game’s campaign takes place in 2025, with Alex Mason as the protagonist.

The game takes place in a dystopian future where Earth’s governments have been overthrown by an international coalition led by Raul Menendez. He has been using cybernetic enhancements to control his followers since the late 1980s. The game’s story follows Alex Mason as he attempts to stop Menendez from achieving global domination and saving the world from nuclear destruction.

10. Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013)

Release date: November 5, 2013

It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game’s campaign mode follows Private First Class Mitchell Cooper as he goes through a series of training missions with other unit members during the events that led up to the start of World War III. The multiplayer mode features four different classes with customizable load-outs.

11. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014)

Release date: November 3, 2014

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is set shortly in which private military corporations have evolved into powerful global entities. The United States has been reduced to a second-tier power as these PMCs are now primarily responsible for maintaining global peace.

The game features new technologies such as exoskeletons and “exo-rigs” that enhance players’ abilities and provide them with superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes.

12. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)

Release date: November 6, 2015

The game was released with a new single-player campaign mode consisting of four different stories between 1984 and 2025. The game also features multiplayer modes such as “Blackout,” an all-new battle royale mode where players fight to be the last man standing on a massive map with no rules or boundaries.

13. Call of Duty: Infinity Warfare (2016)

Release date: November 4, 2016

With the release of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in 2016, Activision decided it was time for a new game in the series to be released. This latest installment brought back the old-school Call of Duty formula with modern-day graphics and gameplay changes.

14. Call of Duty: WWII (2017)

Release date: November 3, 2017

It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Call of Duty: WWII is the fourteenth installment in the Call of Duty series set during World War II. The game features a campaign mode that focuses on the story of Private Ronald “Red” Daniels as he fights in the European theater.

15. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Blackout (2018)

Release date: October 1, 2018

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game’s campaign follows David Mason, who tries to stop a global terrorist organization called “Rise” from destroying the world with nuclear weapons in 2025

16. Call of Duty: Mobile (2019)

Release date: October 1, 2019

It is a game that focuses on multiplayer combat and fast-paced, tactical gameplay. The game features a variety of characters with different weapons and skillsets, as well as a range of environments from the iconic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 maps to new locations from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

Release date: October 25, 2019

It is released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game’s campaign follows Private First Class Jack Mitchell as he fights against Russian forces in Afghanistan.

18. Call of Duty: Warzone (2020)

Release date: March 10, 2020

Call of Duty: Warzone is an online multiplayer first-person shooter game set in a futuristic war between the United Nations Space Alliance (UNSA) and the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG). It will feature new weapons, vehicles, and maps.

19. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020)

Release date: November 23, 2020Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set in a fictional dystopian future where the United States and Russia are at war. The game’s campaign follows the protagonist in his attempt to stop the war from escalating into nuclear devastation.

20. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)

Release date: November 5, 2021

The Call of Duty franchise has now returned to World War II once again in the year 2021. It is a first-person shooter game in the future, where players are part of an elite military unit called Vanguard. Players take on missions with futuristic weapons and equipment. It accredited this to the WWII gaming setting and lacked innovation in the premium game release. 

21. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) – not released yet 

Release date: October 28, 2022

Modern Warfare 2 is a sequel to the revived Modern Warfare that came out in 2019, and it is the first main release of the Infinity Ward, excluding Warzone. This gaming campaign will see the return of Sergeant Kyle Garrick, also known as Gaz, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Captain John Price, and John “Soap” MacTavish. The game promises the players a modernized game with AI systems and reconstructed Gunsmith. 

Call of Duty franchise Timeline 

You can also play the list of call of duty games according to the timelines they are based in. Most games jump around at different times, so we have set the games according to the jumps in the campaign. 

• Call of Duty: WW2 (1940)
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour (1942)
• Call of Duty: World at War (1942)
• Call of Duty 2 (1942)
• Call of Duty (1942)
• Call of Duty 3 (1944)
• Call of Duty: Big Red One (1944)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (1945)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (1961)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (the 1960s)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (the 1980s)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (1999)
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2011)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2016)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2016)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (2017)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2043)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2054)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2065)
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2080)

The Development Of Call Of Duty And What The Future Holds For It

The first iteration of Call of Duty was a historically realistic game that attempted to recreate key conflicts that had actually taken place. After a substantial amount of time, the franchise shifted its focus away from historical settings and to fictitious ones. Even with such a significant shift, this franchise has been going from strength to strength.

The Beginning Of The Franchise

The first game in the series, called Call of Duty, was initially developed for the Microsoft Windows platform on October 29, 2003. This first-person shooter depicts the infantry and battle of World War II and is quite similar to the Medal of Honor series in terms of the gameplay it offers. 

The original development team, Infinity Ward, created the game with the intention of differentiating it from other generic war simulators by giving players the ability to watch the conflict from many perspectives. The American, the British, and the Soviet points of view on the war are each presented in the game. In contrast to prior war simulators, which required players to act as “Lone Wolves,” Call of Duty was unique in its use of artificial intelligence (AI) squad mates to fully immerse players in the combat environment. 

This brand-new franchise was such a hit that it had already earned $29.6 million and sold 790,000 copies in the United States by the time August 2006 rolled around. Call of Duty: Finest Hour was the first video game to be made available for purchase on a home console when it was made available for the Xbox on November 16, 2004. 

This most recent entry in the series not only ported the franchise to consoles, but it was also the first to include online along with local multiplayer, which remains a significant component of the series to this day. Because Call of Duty had become such a dominant force in the first-person shooter subgenre, new iterations of the franchise were being released on an annual basis.

Annual Editions

There is a higher risk of sloppiness and hasty production whenever a video game franchise publishes new installments on an annual basis. Activision had planned to combat this by dividing the output of the games among two different studios, intending to add a third studio later. Treyarch and Infinity Ward were the two studios that worked on the game. 

Infinity Ward was the original development firm for the first game in the series. Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One were both video games that were developed for the Call of Duty series in the month of November 2005. The second game in the series was a spin-off of the brand, but its primary purpose was to test Treyarch to determine if they were capable of producing games that were worthy of the Call of Duty moniker.

 They had accomplished what was expected of them, and the players had a positive reaction to the game. Even while the specific number of copies sold is kept secret from the general public, we know that, as stated by Metacritic, there were no fewer than 300,000 copies sold in the United Kingdom. This suggests that the sales in the United States were far higher than those in the United Kingdom. Activision decided, after the year 2005, that each development company would only produce one game every couple of years. This was done so that outstanding, well-polished games may be released into the market on an annual basis. 

Beginning in 2006, the cycle continued with Treyarch, followed by Infinity Ward in 2007, and so on. As computer games grew, so did the series. Activision hired another developer firm in 2011 to assist Infinity Ward with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to accommodate for more complicated games, and they have been working together ever since. Sledgehammer Games was the name of this development studio, and it would eventually become the third main developer studio in the franchise. They would begin the development cycle in 2014 with their initial entry, which was titled Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

The Prospects For The Franchise

Call of Duty had significant setbacks during its “Futuristic” period. Still, the company was able to stage a remarkable recovery after it started paying attention to the comments and suggestions of its players. The series is about to enter a fresh period of time, which the audience is really excited about. 

The most recent installment, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, achieved a number of sales milestones never before achieved. Black Ops 4 was “the biggest day-one digital release in the company’s history,” “the best-selling day-one full game on the PlayStation Store globally,” “the best-selling Activision day-one digital game on the Xbox Store,” and “the release on Battle.net also saw a major boost,” “more than doubling PC digital sales over last year,” according to Forbes. 

Black Ops 4 came out on October 12, 2018. It has also been claimed that the next chapter in the franchise is going to be the sequel to the Modern Warfare series. The Modern Warfare series is the Call of Duty series that has seen the most success over the years. This long-running series appears to have a bright future ahead of it.

FAQs

1. What is the best Call of Duty in order?

The best game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and it is loved by all the players all over the globe. 

2. What’s the most recent Call of Duty?

The most recent Call of Duty game is the Call of Duty: Vanguard 2021. 

Conclusion

Call of Duty games has always created massive hype whenever they release. The first-person shooter game has sold up to 425 million copies since it was released in 2003. With several spin-offs from the start till date, you have so many choices to play from, from Call of Duty 3 to Modern Warfare and Black Ops; each game brings a series of adventures, kills, and upgraded features for true gamers to enjoy. 

So make use of our list of Call of Duty games and play in order of release or according to the timeline. 

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