Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is about to get its first big season of new content. Activision announced on October 28, 2026, that Season 1 arrives on November 6, 2026, with new multiplayer maps, new game modes, a new DMZ location, new weapons, and full integration with the free-to-play game Call of Duty: Warzone.
The season starts at midnight Eastern Time on November 6, which is 9 p.m. Pacific Time on November 5, according to the official announcement on the Call of Duty blog. That date is just two weeks after the game’s full launch on October 23. It is one of the biggest gaming stories of the fall, alongside the record-breaking GTA VI trailer.
What we know / What we don’t know
What we know:
- Season 1 start: midnight ET on November 6, 2026 (9 p.m. PT on November 5).
- Three multiplayer maps at launch: Backstab, Canyon, and a reimagined Shoot House.
- Two Halloween party modes first: Possession on October 29 and Infected on October 30.
- Launch modes: Grind, Drop Zone, and Gauntlet 1v1, plus the Wager Match event.
- DMZ: a new location called X01, a secret weapons facility, with new missions guided by Ghost.
- Warzone: joins Modern Warfare 4 in Season 1, with new maps Hajin and Zodiac, plus the return of Verdansk and Rebirth Island.
- Two new weapons in the Battle Pass: the Cronen Osprey rifle and the CSG-35 submachine gun. The JAK 12 shotgun and ZLR Talonhawk melee weapon arrive later in the season.
- Battle Pass: a 100-tier track with more than 100 rewards, costing 1,100 COD Points, or 2,400 for a bundle version.
What we don’t know yet:
- The exact date of the mid-season update, Season 1 Reloaded, has not been announced.
- Full Warzone details arrive in a separate post on November 2.
- Some DMZ details, including new enemies and items, are kept secret and marked classified in the announcement.
When does Season 1 start?
Season 1 goes live at midnight Eastern Time on November 6, 2026, or 9 p.m. Pacific Time on November 5. One note: some guides published before the official announcement guessed a morning start time based on past seasons. The official blog is the source to trust here, and it says midnight Eastern.
New multiplayer maps at launch
Season 1 brings more than six maps in total across the season, but three arrive on day one.
Backstab is a brand-new, medium-sized map for 6-versus-6 matches, set in a snow-covered, war-torn town with abandoned tanks and damaged buildings. Long sightlines down the streets suit rifle players, while open buildings suit close-range fights. Rooftops and upper floors give players high ground to control.
Canyon is another brand-new, medium-sized 6-versus-6 map, this time in a hot desert. Players can fight along a river near a convoy ambush site, take a winding cliff path, or move through a cave in the north that leads to an abandoned shack, a good spot for an ambush. A central mesa gives views across both ends of the map.
Shoot House returns in a reimagined form. Long-time players will recognize its three-lane layout, but the setting is now a snowy landscape in North Korea. The three lanes run through the southern Junkyard, tunnels leading to the Center, and the northern Containers area.
At mid-season, three more maps arrive: Ministry, set during a fictional Global Peace Summit at a damaged embassy; Overflow, centered on a factory and nearby farmland; and additional maps that are still classified. The popular small map Shipment is already back: a remastered version arrived on October 27 as part of the pre-season, so players can use it now to level up weapons before Season 1 begins.
New modes: Halloween first, then the season launch
Two party modes arrive before Season 1, just in time for Halloween week.
Possession arrives on October 29. It is a fast party mode where eliminating an enemy player lets you take over their position on the map and steal their loadout, the weapons and gear they were carrying. Because you always possess the enemy you eliminate, you need to check your target before you shoot.
Infected arrives on October 30. One player starts as Infected, and every Survivor they eliminate joins the Infected team. Survivors must hold out as long as they can. Infected players move fast and quietly, armed with knives and a stealth perk. Survivors carry heavier weapons, including a shotgun with explosive rounds, trip wires, and concussion grenades.
When Season 1 launches on November 6, three more modes arrive. Grind is a returning favorite: eliminate enemies, collect their dog tags, and bank them to score, but you drop all your tags if you are eliminated. Drop Zone is about holding a single rotating objective while supply drops deliver random killstreak rewards. Gauntlet 1v1 is a one-versus-one Gunfight mode inside the Wager Match event, where the winner stays on to face the next challenger.
More modes arrive at mid-season, including Counter Attack and a new twist on Team Deathmatch.
DMZ: the X01 Black Site
For DMZ players, the headline addition is X01, a previously hidden weapons facility on the edge of the Hajin area. The character Ghost guides players through new missions, called Orders, as they push deeper inside.
The facility is described as a maze of cargo bays, vehicle depots, underground labs, production lines, tunnels, and a sealed Deep Vault. Players must plan carefully, work as a squad, and track the nearest exit, because the facility tries to cut off escape routes as the mission goes on.
New bosses patrol the site, including a juggernaut commander known as The Captain and two lieutenants, Tae-Hyun, nicknamed Knuckle, and Chol-Min, nicknamed The Wrench. Season 1 DMZ events include Threat Briefings, where squads hunt boss threats and bring back parts for rewards, and Resupply Run, a race to find items and trade them for high-value gear like self-revives and armored plates.
Much of X01 is deliberately kept secret. The announcement marks new enemies, items, and equipment as classified, so players will discover those details by playing.
Warzone joins Modern Warfare 4
Season 1 is also when Warzone fully joins Modern Warfare 4. Two new Warzone maps arrive: Hajin, a battle royale map based on the DMZ area, and Zodiac, a smaller Resurgence map built around a moving train. Verdansk and Rebirth Island, two fan-favorite maps, also return.
A separate blog post on November 2 will cover Warzone in Season 1 in full. Players should note that the new version of Warzone only becomes available with Season 1, so until November 6, Warzone still runs on the older version. That is normal, not a problem with your install.
New weapons and the Battle Pass
Two new base weapons arrive in the Season 1 Battle Pass. The Cronen Osprey is a 5.56 assault rifle with a very fast fire rate of 882 rounds per minute, unlocked at Battle Pass Tier 16. Its recoil kicks up and to the right in sustained fire, so short bursts help. The CSG-35 is a submachine gun with the highest fire rate in its class at 1,200 rounds per minute, unlocked at Tier 36. It is deadly within about 20 meters but harder to control at longer range.
Later in the season, two more weapons arrive as event rewards: the JAK 12, a full-auto shotgun, and the ZLR Talonhawk, a heavy combat axe. New attachments include a double-barrel receiver for the Cronen Osprey that fires on both trigger pull and release, and an akimbo attachment for dual-wielding two CSG-35s.
The Season 1 Battle Pass uses a simpler system than before: a straight 100-tier track, with a catch-up feature that automatically brings premium owners up to the reward matching the current day of the season, up to day 50, if they fall behind. Buying the premium pass guarantees more than 50 rewards, and finishing all 100 tiers earns completion rewards including a special operator skin, a weapon blueprint, and 200 COD Points. The top tier reward is an Ultra rarity Mosin-Nagant blueprint called Bellum.
Two new operators headline the season: Blix, who appears throughout the Battle Pass, and XERO, a mysterious BlackCell operator. BlackCell buyers get XERO right away, plus 1,100 COD Points, 20 tier skips, and exclusive skins and blueprints.
Events to watch
Season 1 kicks off with the Wager Match event, where trophies are the currency. Play the Gauntlet 1v1 playlist in multiplayer and complete challenges in DMZ and Warzone to earn trophies and rewards, including attachments, an operator skin, a weapon blueprint, and a weapon camo.
Other events run through the season, including Weapon Camo events, where playing matches earns experience toward camos, and the Joint Fire event, which rewards playing with friends: bigger squads earn a bigger experience boost, plus blueprints, charms, double-experience tokens, and a DMZ survival kit.
What to do before November 6
Play Shipment now to level up weapons while the pre-season lasts. Try Possession on October 29 and Infected on October 30 for Halloween week. Decide whether you want the standard Battle Pass at 1,100 COD Points or the bundle at 2,400 COD Points, which unlocks instant rewards right away. And mark November 2 for the full Warzone details, plus November 6 at midnight Eastern for the season itself. If you are also upgrading your setup this fall, see our explainer on Apple’s new M6 MacBook Pro and iMac.
Sources
Sources: Call of Duty official blog, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1: All You Need to Know,” October 28, 2026 (primary source): https://www.callofduty.com/blog/2026/10/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-4-warzone-season-1-announcement — IGN and Windows Central coverage of the Season 1 announcement, October 28, 2026 (secondary).
