The counting rule, stated first
"23 mainline entries" means consecutive mainline games only. Spin-offs and companions (Finest Hour, Big Red One, Warzone, Call of Duty Mobile, the handheld ports) do not take numbers. State the rule whenever you quote the count, because half the disagreement about "how many CODs are there" is people counting different things.
The full table
| # | Game | Released | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Call of Duty | October 29, 2003 | Infinity Ward |
| 2 | Call of Duty 2 | October 25, 2005 | Infinity Ward |
| 3 | Call of Duty 3 | November 7, 2006 | Treyarch |
| 4 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | November 5, 2007 | Infinity Ward |
| 5 | World at War | November 11, 2008 | Treyarch |
| 6 | Modern Warfare 2 | November 10, 2009 | Infinity Ward |
| 7 | Black Ops | November 9, 2010 | Treyarch |
| 8 | Modern Warfare 3 | November 8, 2011 | IW + Sledgehammer |
| 9 | Black Ops II | November 12, 2012 | Treyarch |
| 10 | Ghosts | November 5, 2013 | Infinity Ward |
| 11 | Advanced Warfare | November 4, 2014 | Sledgehammer |
| 12 | Black Ops III | November 6, 2015 | Treyarch |
| 13 | Infinite Warfare | November 4, 2016 | Infinity Ward |
| 14 | WWII | November 3, 2017 | Sledgehammer |
| 15 | Black Ops 4 | October 12, 2018 | Treyarch |
| 16 | Modern Warfare (reboot) | October 25, 2019 | Infinity Ward |
| 17 | Black Ops Cold War | November 13, 2020 | Treyarch + Raven |
| 18 | Vanguard | November 5, 2021 | Sledgehammer |
| 19 | Modern Warfare II | October 28, 2022 | Infinity Ward |
| 20 | Modern Warfare III | November 10, 2023 | Sledgehammer |
| 21 | Black Ops 6 | October 25, 2024 | Treyarch + Raven |
| 22 | Black Ops 7 | November 14, 2025 | Treyarch + Raven |
| 23 | Modern Warfare 4 | October 23, 2026 | Infinity Ward |
Dates for 2003 through 2018 come from Activision's own 20th anniversary retrospective. A correction this table makes permanent: Call of Duty 4 launched November 5, 2007; the November 7 date that circulates on wikis is wrong.
The Modern Warfare line, the short version
Two eras, one name:
- The original trilogy: CoD4 (2007), MW2 (2009), MW3 (2011). Task Force 141 versus Makarov, ended for good in 2011.
- The reboot tetralogy: MW (2019), MWII (2022), MWIII (2023), and now MW4 (2026). MW4 picks up after MW3's ending: Makarov loose, Soap dead, Price off the leash. The campaign carries that thread.
The remasters (MW Remastered, MW2 Campaign Remastered) are separate products with the old stories, not steps toward MW4. The full disambiguation.
Where MW4 sits in the pattern
The franchise has released annually since 2005, and MW4 continues the rotation with Infinity Ward back in the lead seat. What breaks the pattern this year: the simultaneous native Switch 2 version, and the absence of any last-gen edition. What that means for buyers.