Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 free trial is live now and players can dive into the entire campaign — but you'll need to act fast

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign rewind screenshots show various Black Ops operators and antagonists from the upcoming spy-thriller.
You can play through the entire campaign of Black Ops 6 with this free trial. (Image credit: Activision, Xbox)

If you've wanted to check out Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, but you haven't been willing to buy it or subscribe to the most expensive tiers of Xbox Game Pass, there's great news. A limited-time free trial is live now, meaning you can jump in and play at no cost.

This free trial kicked off on Thursday, and is slated to run all the way through October 16, meaning you've got a week from the time I'm writing this.

What is most notable about this free trial is that it's not limited to just the multiplayer, or even multiplayer in addition to Zombies. The entire Campaign mode is also included, so you can play it for free and easily complete the entire thing in the allotted time for the free trial.

Even if you're not interested in the other modes, the campaign is well worth playing, and while there are criticisms to be had, it's easily the best campaign for the series in years. A large portion of that stems from its development, as the team had four years to make it, unlike the three-or-less cycle that most of the series is currently on.

There are numerous different types of missions, with immersive sim-lite infiltration mixed with psychological horror across a story with some wild twists and turns. If you enjoy single-player first-person shooters, I highly recommend checking it out.

The free trial is available on all platforms, so you can check it out on Xbox, PlayStation, or PC (via Battle.net or Steam).

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is almost here

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is launching in November. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Of course, Call of Duty is still on a yearly release cycle, and the next game in the series is set to launch in a few weeks. This time, it's a back-to-back sequel, with developers Treyarch and Raven returning to helm Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Don't let the name fool you, though, as this game isn't a direct follow-up to the events of Black Ops 6's story. Instead, it returns to protagonist David Mason from 2012's Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, with a story that's being described as "mind-bending" and is set in the year 2035.

The campaign does support co-op, meaning players can hop in with a friend or three, something that hasn't been frequently seen in the franchise. In fact, it hasn't been seen at all in a decade, not since 2015's Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which was also led by Treyarch.

In addition to this campaign, Zombies and multiplayer return. Treyarch has noticeably been responding to player feedback at an aggressive cadence, confirming that it would tone down some of the more outlandish Operator skins to better suit the series' tone, while also announcing on Thursday that Black Ops 7 would launch with skill-based matchmaking significantly dialed back from prior iterations.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (Battle.net, Steam, and Xbox on PC), PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. As with all Xbox first-party games, it'll be available at launch in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.


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Samuel Tolbert
Freelance Writer

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Bluesky ‪@samueltolbert.bsky.social‬.

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