You'd think it would be easy. You just look at the dates, right? Wrong. If you are looking for the list of CoD games in order, you are actually staring at two very different monsters: the order they hit store shelves and the actual chronological timeline of the wars they depict. Honestly, trying to play them in "story order" is a recipe for a headache because Activision loves jumping from 1944 to 2054 and back to the 80s within a single three-year dev cycle.
Most people just want to see how the graphics evolved. They want to see that leap from the blocky faces of 2003 to the uncanny valley realism of Modern Warfare III (the new one, not the 2011 one—yeah, the naming is a mess). Let's just get into it.
The list of CoD games in order of release
If you want to experience the franchise the way we all did—growing up alongside the shift from "World War II simulator" to "super-soldier movement shooter"—this is your path. It starts in 2003. Infinity Ward, a bunch of devs who broke away from the Medal of Honor team, decided they wanted to make something grittier.
- Call of Duty (2003): The one that started it all. You played as American, British, and Soviet soldiers. It felt massive at the time.
- Call of Duty 2 (2005): This was the big Xbox 360 launch title. It introduced regenerating health. No more hunting for medkits. It changed FPS games forever.
- Call of Duty 3 (2006): This was Treyarch’s first big go at a mainline title. It was okay, but it felt a bit like a stopgap.
Then, 2007 happened.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed everything. No more M1 Garands. Now we had red dot sights and AC-130 gunships. This is where the "Prestige" grind began. If you weren't there for the lobby trash talk in 2007, you missed a very specific, very toxic era of internet history.
The yearly cycle became a machine after that.
World at War (2008) took us back to WWII but added Zombies. Nobody knew Zombies would become its own sub-culture, but here we are. Modern Warfare 2 (2009) was the peak for many. "No Russian." The betrayal of Shepherd. It was peak gaming drama.
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Then came the experimental years. Black Ops (2010) gave us the Cold War and numbers stations. Modern Warfare 3 (2011) wrapped up the original trilogy. Black Ops II (2012) went into the future with drones and branching endings. It was actually pretty ambitious for a "copy-paste" franchise.
- Ghosts (2013): Everyone remembers the dog. Not many remember the plot.
- Advanced Warfare (2014): Kevin Spacey and jetpacks. The "Exo-suit" era began.
- Black Ops III (2015): More jetpacks, but better Zombies.
- Infinite Warfare (2016): We went to space. People hated the trailer, but the campaign was actually top-tier.
We eventually swung back to boots-on-the-ground. WWII (2017) was a return to roots. Black Ops 4 (2018) famously had no campaign but gave us Blackout, the precursor to Warzone. Then, the reboot era kicked off with Modern Warfare (2019). It felt heavy. It felt real. It also brought Warzone, which basically took over the world during the lockdowns.
The 2020s have been a blur of sequels and remakes. Black Ops Cold War (2020), Vanguard (2021), Modern Warfare II (2022), and Modern Warfare III (2023). Most recently, we got Black Ops 6 (2024), which finally leaned back into that 90s Gulf War aesthetic.
Sorting through the timeline mess
Looking at a list of CoD games in order of when the stories actually happen is a different beast. If you want to play them chronologically, you start with WWII or World at War. You spend a lot of time in the 1940s. Then you jump to the 1960s with the first Black Ops.
But here is the kicker: the Modern Warfare reboot (2019) is a separate universe from the original Modern Warfare (2007). You can't just play them all in one line. It doesn't work. The "Black Ops Timeline" is now loosely connected to the new "Modern Warfare Timeline" through Warzone lore, but it’s messy.
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If you're a purist, you follow the Black Ops thread:
World at War -> Black Ops -> Black Ops Cold War -> Black Ops II (past missions) -> Black Ops 6 -> Black Ops II (future missions) -> Black Ops III -> Black Ops 4.
It’s exhausting.
Why the order actually matters for players
You might think it doesn't matter where you start. It does. If you jump from the movement mechanics of Black Ops 6 back to the original Call of Duty 4, you will feel like you're walking through sludge. The "Omnimovement" in the newest titles allows you to dive and slide in any direction. Going back to static leaning and slow mantling is tough.
Also, the file sizes. Good lord.
If you decide to install the recent list of CoD games in order, you’re going to need terabytes of space. Activision has tried to consolidate this with the "Call of Duty HQ" app, but it's basically a bloated launcher that makes you download 150GB just to play a 6-hour campaign. It’s a huge point of contention in the community right now.
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Surprising facts about the "lost" games
Everyone forgets the console-exclusive spin-offs. Before CoD 2 was a hit on 360, we had Call of Duty: Finest Hour. We had Big Red One. These weren't just ports; they were entirely different games with different levels. If you're a completionist looking for a true list of CoD games in order, you can't ignore the handhelds either. Call of Duty: Roads to Victory on the PSP was... a thing that existed. Not a great thing, but a thing.
Then there’s Call of Duty Online, the weird China-exclusive version that had cyborgs and golden AK-47s long before the mainline games got truly wacky. It’s defunct now, but it was a massive testing ground for what eventually became Call of Duty: Mobile.
Actionable Steps for New Players
If you are just getting into the series today, don't try to play everything. You'll burn out by the time you hit the mid-2010s. Instead, follow these specific tracks based on what you actually enjoy:
- For the best story experience: Play the original Modern Warfare (2007) and Modern Warfare 2 (2009). Then, switch to the reboot Modern Warfare (2019) to see how they reimagined the characters like Captain Price and Ghost.
- For the "Mind-Bending" stuff: Stick to the Treyarch games. Play Black Ops 1, Cold War, and Black Ops 6. They have the best "conspiracy theory" vibes and the most consistent internal logic.
- For pure gameplay feel: Just get the most recent release. The multiplayer population always migrates to the newest shiny object. As of 2026, the older titles are often filled with modders and hackers on PC, so be careful if you're diving into old school lobbies.
- Check your storage: Before downloading any title from the last five years, ensure you have at least 200GB of free SSD space. Do not try to run these on a mechanical hard drive; the texture streaming will cause stutters that make the game unplayable.
- Disable "Texture Streaming" in settings: If you have a limited data cap, turn this off immediately in the options menu of the newer games. It tries to download high-res assets while you play, which can eat through hundreds of gigabytes of data in a single weekend.
The franchise isn't going anywhere. Whether you're interested in the list of CoD games in order for the lore or just to see how many gigabytes you can cram onto a drive, there's a specific kind of history there. It’s the history of the modern blockbuster. It’s loud, it’s expensive, and despite what the critics say every year, it’s still the biggest thing in the room.