
Software Development 4 Jul, 2025
Call of Duty series is projected to surpass $40 billion globally by 2030, making it one of the most profitable entertainment franchises of all time.
(Source: Statista)
When people ask me how many Call of Duty games there are, the answer isn’t exactly simple. Since 2003 Call of Duty franchise has taken over the world of FPS, and each year we have had some new iteration of it and several spin-offs and mobile games, too. Then, in case you want to follow the entire path, considering all Call of Duty games in order is the most appropriate manner to comprehend the way the series has been developed as the years have passed.
I’ve watched the series evolve massively from gritty, pixelated World War II settings to high-tech futuristic warfare and even massive battle royale modes. It’s grown with its audience, always trying something bold (and sometimes controversial).
In this article, I’ve put together a full list of Call of Duty games in release order, starting from the very first title in 2003 and going all the way through 2025. This is a total list of all the major releases, even though I have omitted some of the spin-offs and mobile games. Thus, should you want to play the Call of Duty franchise chronologically or see how it has developed, this list can take care of you.
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Here are all Call of Duty games in order by release year, with a quick summary of each.
How can I forget this OG in all Call of Duty games in order? I still remember booting up the first Call of Duty back in October 2003. It took me through three intense campaigns: American, British, and Soviet. I didn’t play as a named protagonist, but I fought beside soldiers who felt real. There wasn’t a main villain per se, just the persistent machine of the Nazi war effort. It was raw, cinematic, and unlike any WWII game I’d played before.
When Call of Duty 2 dropped in October 2005, it built on everything the first game started. From the deserts of North Africa to the icy streets of Russia, I saw war from multiple angles. I played Sergeant John Davis and Bill Taylor, facing overwhelming German forces. Again, no single face to hate, just brutal survival.
This was released in November 2006 and I was playing this one on the console. The Normandy breakout was the area of focus of the story. I was serving in an American squad, and the campaign did not make me have one specific villain, but it was all about holding the line, keeping my team alive, and pressing through the mess.
November 2007 changed everything. Modern Warfare was something else. I met Soap MacTavish and Captain Price, legends in the making. I hunted down Khaled Al-Asad, only to discover Imran Zakhaev pulling the strings. The ending, with Price sliding Soap (me) the pistol to take one final shot, still gives me chills. It was my first taste of modern conflict in Call of Duty, and it was unforgettable. If you’re playing all Call of Duty games in order, this is the turning point where everything gets intense, cinematic, and unforgettable.
Treyarch put me back in WWII in November of 2008 and this time it was darker. I was storming the Pacific beaches and the Reichstag wall in Berlin. Mr. Reznov is already a hardcore guy, a man, Dmitry Reznov. We were brothers in arms, however. The boundaries became blurred by his desire for revenge. The Nazis were back (though the atrocities were this time all the more up close and personal). And let’s not forget it introduced me to Nazi Zombies!
By November 2009, I was deep into the Modern Warfare saga. I once again joined Task Force 141 as Roach and worked with Soap, Ghost, and Price. However, the twist came in at this moment: General Shepherd, who was the man we trusted, turned against us. I still get nightmares over watching the execution of Ghost and Roach. And then there is the No Russian mission of Makarov I should not even talk about it. The play was worldwide, and I happened to be at the center stage of the whole thing.
In the year 2010, the Black Ops came to bring me to the shades of the Cold War. My character was called Alex Mason, and it all started to get weird. Numbers. Brainwashing. Was I the killer of JFK? Viktor Reznov was here again, yet as it sounds like, he may have only been in my head. It was not only a shooter but also a psychological maze. It was crazy, and I enjoyed every second of it.
The trilogy called Modern Warfare was concluded in the year 2011 and it did so with a bang. I have seen Soap dying in the arms of Price, and I have killed Makarov using burning buildings and crashing planes. The scene when Price lights up a cigar next to the hanged body of Makarov is engraved in my memory forever. It was vengeance, it was judgment, and it was the goodbye of the era.
In 2012, I went through time and had to switch between Alex Mason in the 80s and his son David shortly. What a villain Raul Menendez is. He was magnetic, murderous, and oddly familiar. The game provided me with a choice and alternative endings and allowed me to ponder what justice was. Black and white was no longer the case.
Ghosts 2013 took me, and to be truthful, it was a new approach. I became a Ghost Squad member and even fought with a dog called Riley. Here is the turn. Our commander, Rorke, was one of us until he was taken into custody and programmed. He was now our arch-enemy. It was a cliffhanger at the end, revealing two men, in my opinion, brutally, and I again wish we would have a sequel to it. A brutal cliffhanger with two men caught in chaos. I still wish we’d gotten a proper sequel. If you’re playing Call of Duty in order, Ghosts stands out as one of the most underrated and unresolved chapters.
When this was released in 2014, Call of Duty had become a game of the future in an actual sense. I wore an exo-suit and could jump buildings, and Kevin Spacey was Jonathan Irons, head of Atlas. He began as a hero and became a dictator. A theme of betrayal was reused, and I was forced to kill off the person who saved my life.
Technology went weird in 2015. Cybernetics and implants and dreams within dreams. I hardly knew what I was, still less who the enemy was. There was no villain; there was only an evil AI and spirits of my choice. It was trippy, and it was exploratory of being imaginative in a way that was not predictable. When you look at all Call of Duty games in order, this one stands out as the most surreal and experimental entry in the series.
In 2016, I made it in space. Literally. I changed to Captain Reyes and was in command of the Retribution warship. The villain that I faced was Salen Kotch, performed by Kit Harington. He was merciless and scheming, and in the opinion of Earth people, he had to be appealed to by his Settlement Defense Front. The last thing that I sacrificed to the crew was hard to call: it was not about the war between the stars but the terrestrial feelings.
I was tired of sci-fi, and in 2017, I was back to boots-on-the-ground action. It reminded me of why I fell in love with Call of Duty in the first place: real people, real wars, real stakes. No supervillains, just survival against unbeatable odds.
This was the odd one. Released in 2018 as a multiplayer game, with no campaign whatsoever. I kind of missed that! But the multiplayer and Zombies were polished. My time was spent figuring out specialist backstories and fighting through the chaos of Blackout, CoD’s first battle royale.
In 2019, Price was back. This reboot hit harder, darker, and very real. I fought beside Farah Karim, dealt with war crimes and chemical weapons, and witnessed firsthand the chilling sights and sounds of modern warfare. Roman Barkov, the Russian general, was a frightful foe, especially considering he felt real. Sure, we were the good guys, if only it had felt that simple.
2020’s Warzone was a game-changer. I dropped into Verdansk with friends, hunted for contracts, fought gas circles, and revived in the Gulag. It wasn’t about the story, but the lore still crept in. Makarov, Menendez, and Ghost returned as Operators, tying everything together in one chaotic sandbox.
In 2020, too, I entered the Cold War as one of the operatives (Bell). I was working under Adler, and we were chasing a Soviet specter named Perseus. Eventually, I came to my choice: be a traitor to the CIA or be faithful. It was personal, and mind control strings in earlier Black Ops games came full circle.
In 2021 Vanguard assigned me four characters as main characters but of various Allied nations. I got all points of view in WWII: sniping Nazis in Russia, dogfighting over the Pacific, and fighting through North Africa. Its evil character was Hermann Freisinger, sent to kick-start a secret scheme back in the Nazi SS.
It was in 2022 when I went back to Task Force 141 with Soap, Ghost, and Price. We hunted Hassan Zyani, an Iranian Quds Force co-worker with American shadow ops. The missions were dirty, collaborative interactions between Ghost and Soap were gold, and shootouts were as taut as ever.
Later the same year, Warzone was revamped. There was a replacement for Al Mazrah over Verdansk, and I was forced to understand a completely different way of playing. Players who were connected to Modern Warfare II, and the groups continued to become bigger. It was still a mess, and the world continued to develop.
Makarov was back by 2023. And he was unlike ever before. I witnessed him play with world events, strategize terror, and push Task Force 141 to the limits like never before. Price and Ghost were uncompromising, but there was a personal touch in the mission. Particularly, following the events of Verdansk and Al Mazrah.
Set in 1991, Black Ops 6 launched me into the Gulf War era. I worked with Frank Woods and a new agent named Troy Marshall to track down a rogue CIA-funded militia. Pantheon felt like a mirror image of everything wrong with U.S. black ops. This one was a return to classic spycraft and a perfect fit for Black Ops.
“FPS games like Call of Duty don’t just test reflexes; they create battlegrounds where skill, strategy, and adrenaline collide in every second.”
– Shoaib Abdul Ghaffar
As I have been one to play all Call of Duty games in order, it would only be just that I remain very curious about what the next game has to offer. The 2025 new release, funnily enough, claims the title Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and is running the rumor mill wild. As of today, official details remain undisclosed, but leaks and industrial insider reports give a far-too-good glimpse into what we should expect from the upcoming entry.
A report by Activision ( Developers of the Call of Duty Series):
Activision reports that they have already confirmed that AI-generated art assets were used in recent titles. With generative AI advancing, we’ll likely see:
Black Ops 7 could be a major turning point where generative AI is no longer a backend tool but a visible feature in the gameplay experience.
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Multiple sources mention the targeting of Click Operation 2025 for some months between October and November 2025, thus keeping the tradition of Activision’s release cycle. That is going to be the 23rd mainline entry if you go counting the Call of Duty cons list in order.
The game is expected to launch on
This could be the last Call of Duty game for older-gen hardware, a defining moment for the Call of Duty franchise.
The rumors suggest the storyline and series of events for Black Ops 7 will go on from Black Ops 6 (2024) and is set roughly in 2035. David Mason, the son of Alex Mason from Black Ops 1 and 2, will likely lead the campaign, taking care of new geopolitics, which are more or less in Black Ops 6.
Having played all Call of Duty games in order, I can confidently say we’re entering a whole new era, and AI is right at the center of it. What started as tight scripting and basic bot behavior has evolved into something way more advanced. The future of Call of Duty in order isn’t just about bigger explosions or better graphics; it’s about smarter, more dynamic gameplay driven by artificial intelligence.
Activision recently confirmed that AI-generated art assets are already being used in newer entries, and that’s just the beginning. I’ve been tracking industry rumors, and it looks like Call of Duty 2025 (Black Ops 7) may take it even further. We’re talking about:
If you’re following the Call of Duty game list in order, you’ll see how far we’ve come from basic enemy pathfinding in 2003 to intelligent mission design that learns from your actions. This could be the first game where generative AI isn’t just a backend tool; it becomes part of the experience. I can feel it in every shot, every line of dialogue, and every twist in the campaign.
So, how many Call of Duty games are there? Enough to witness the evolution of war games from scripted action to living, learning environments. And if the leaks are true, Call of Duty 2025 might redefine what “interactive” really means.
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Since 2003, the Call of Duty series has released over 20 major titles, evolving from gritty WWII campaigns to futuristic battles, space wars, and open-world battle royale chaos. If you’re wondering how many Call of Duty games are there, the answer is 23 mainline releases, not counting mobile and spin-offs.
Year | Title | Main Setting / Theme |
2003 | Call of Duty | WWII: Allied Campaigns |
2005 | Call of Duty 2 | WWII: North Africa, Europe |
2006 | Call of Duty 3 | WWII: Normandy Breakout |
2007 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | Modern Conflict (Soap, Price, Zakhaev) |
2008 | World at War | WWII: Pacific & Eastern Front + Zombies |
2009 | Modern Warfare 2 | Modern Conflict: Makarov, Shepherd betrayal |
2010 | Black Ops | Cold War: Brainwashing, Reznov |
2011 | Modern Warfare 3 | Modern Conflict: Makarov Finale |
2012 | Black Ops II | Dual Timelines, Raul Menendez |
2013 | Ghosts | Post-apocalyptic U.S. vs. Federation |
2014 | Advanced Warfare | Future Warfare, Exo-suits, Atlas |
2015 | Black Ops III | Cyber Warfare & Mind Control |
2016 | Infinite Warfare | Space Battles, Earth vs. SDF |
2017 | WWII | Grounded WWII Story |
2018 | Black Ops 4 | MP & Battle Royale (No Campaign) |
2019 | Modern Warfare (Reboot) | Modern Terrorism, Chemical War |
2020 | Warzone | Battle Royale in Verdansk |
2020 | Black Ops Cold War | Cold War Spy Thriller |
2021 | Vanguard | Global WWII Squad Campaign |
2022 | Modern Warfare II | Task Force 141 Reunited |
2022 | Warzone 2.0 | Al Mazrah + New Systems |
2023 | Modern Warfare III | Makarov Returns |
2024 | Black Ops 6 | Gulf War, CIA Black Ops |
2025 | Black Ops 7 (rumored) | AI-driven, futuristic Black Ops (2035) |
After playing all Call of Duty games in order, I can say one thing: this franchise redefined what FPS storytelling means. From WWII trenches to futuristic warfare, every title brought something unforgettable.
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