Call of Duty hits Steam for the first time in five years with Modern Warfare 2

What you need to know

• The last Call of Duty title released to Steam was 2017's Call of Duty: WW2 developed by Sledgehammer Games.
• All premium and free-to-play Call of Duty titles have been released exclusively on Blizzard's Battle.net platform for PC.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will release on Oct. 28, 2022, on both Steam and Battle.net, with Warzone 2 to follow later this year.

There has been no shortage of speculation on what platforms Activision would publish the latest premium Call of Duty to; however the conversation primarily revolved around whether Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) would make its way to last-gen consoles or be current gen only. Few could have anticipated that PC players would be given the choice of whether to purchase the game on Activision Blizzard's own Battle.net platform or Valve's popular Steam marketplace. 

Just before the official reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, an eagle-eyed Reddit user discovered an image of the popular Modern Warfare character Simon "Ghost" Riley on the Steam page for the franchise. Following the reveal for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it was confirmed that the game will be returning to Steam following a five-year absence from the platform.

In 2017, Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: World War 2 was the last premium title from the popular franchise to release on Steam. Since then, PC players have been limited to picking up Call of Duty's annual blockbuster through Blizzard's Battle.net app. This has included every main line title and the popular, free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone.

While Infinity Ward is the lead development studio for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the PC port of the game is being developed by Beenox. There will be a free-to-play Warzone 2 title released as a tie-in for Modern Warfare 2 later in 2022; however an official reveal has yet to take place. While there has yet to be any official confirmation it is reasonable that crossplay between PC players on both platforms (and across consoles) will be allowed.