OPINION: The current state of Call of Duty esports

The Call of Duty franchise continues to dominate the first-person shooter (FPS) genre with its annual releases and Warzone, its free-to-play battle royale generating huge revenues through sales and microtransactions. 

Despite Call of Duty’s core focus being on its casual player base, the franchise’s esports scene has continued operating in the form of the Call of Duty League (CDL) and the World Series of Warzone. 

Now in its fourth year, the CDL has stood firm with its geolocated franchise system where 12 city-based franchises compete across regular-season matches to secure a place in the season-ending Championship Weekend. July marks the end of the 2023/24 CDL season with Champs in Allen, Texas from July 18th to the 21st. In recent years, the league has moved streaming platforms, shown promising signs of growth, and continued some of the longest-standing rivalries in all of esports.

With Champs now over, it’s time to take a look at the current state of Call of Duty esports and how the emergence of the Esports World Cup could influence the future of Activision’s shooter series.

The start of the 2023/24 season began shortly after the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with the first of the four Major events and the first of a freshly-inked exclusivity deal with YouTube. The Modern Warfare 2 season that ran throughout 2022 was broadcast on the platform in addition to live-streaming platform Twitch resulting in content creators hosting watch parties ultimately bolstering viewing figures.

The opening Major of the Modern Warfare 3 season recorded peak viewing figures of 245,437 according to esports data platform Esports Charts. The second Major of the season recorded a peak viewership of 244,478, a promising sign of stability for the CDL. Major three saw a slight decline to 238,499 peak viewers, but the signs of the league continuing to attract viewers to the action were certainly there. The fourth and final Major recorded a sharp decline in peak viewership, recording 109,764 for a match between OpTic Texas and the Miami Heretics.

Major four could be considered an anomaly in what’s been a season of consistent viewing figures for the CDL. The original plan was to have the Carolina Royal Ravens, a franchise owned by esports infrastructure company ReKTGlobal, host and operate the event with fans in attendance. Instead, Activision hosted the event from Burbank, California with no spectators.

2024 marked the CDL’s transition to a fully North American league following the London Royal Ravens move to Carolina and c0ntact Gaming’s Paris Legion franchise taking the Las Vegas slot. The lack of teams outside of North America is disappointing considering the passionate fan bases located in the UK and France, but there is still a strong contingent of UK and European players representing some of the franchises involved. UK player Jamie ‘Insight’ Craven represents the Toronto Ultra while Frenchman Paco ‘HyDra’ Rusiewiez competes for the New York Subliners who finished runner-up to OpTic Texas at the 2024 CDL Championship.

Compared to the 2023 CDL season, 2024 saw a slight decline in peak viewing figures. 2023’s Major 2 and Major 3 managed to peak at over 300,000. Esports Charts reports the 2024 regular season saw a 29% decline in average viewership compared to last season, but when compared to the 2022 season, the last CDL season exclusively broadcasted on YouTube, 2023 remained higher.

While the highest tier of Call of Duty competition holds firm, the same can’t be said for Challengers, the second tier of the competitive Call of Duty circuit. Compared to the CDL, Challengers heavily relies on coverage from third-party outlets and despite featuring players that have previously competed in the CDL such as Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson and Obaid ‘Asim’ Asim in addition to aspiring amateur talent, the most-viewed Challengers event was at the start of the year with the Boston Open recording 59,656 peak viewers. The tournaments following saw a steep decline, struggling to achieve higher than 10,000 viewers during the tournaments. 

Despite the lacklustre viewing figures, there are a handful of organisations that continue to field rosters in Challengers competition ranging from FC Black, the academy team of FaZe Clan, and North American organisation OMiT which fielded two teams in the 2024 Challengers Finals event. 

The stability in viewership is a positive sign for the CDL which has stuck with the franchise format since its inception. Following a similar structure to the now-defunct Overwatch League did raise eyebrows, but with major structural changes introduced to improve its sustainability, the CDL ecosystem has avoided shutting down altogether for the time being. 

In late July, the 2024 CDL season concluded with fan-favourites OpTic Texas winning their first season-ending championship in seven years in front of a partisan home crowd. The event recorded 283,184 peak viewers with the Green Wall taking on the New York Subliners, a franchise recently purchased by North American esports organisation Cloud9, in the Grand Finals. 
OpTic Texas featured in three of the five most-watched matches throughout the tournament according to Esports Charts. Compared to 2023’s Champs, viewing figures have declined minimally but that doesn’t tell the entire story. OpTic capitalised on its passionate fan base, hosting an event that saw cameos from its championship-winning roster from 2017 marking a generational change in the next wave of talent rising to the top of Call of Duty esports.

Call of Duty esports doesn’t just revolve around the CDL. The creation of the World Series of Warzone has enabled Activision to expand its esports offerings into the battle royale genre. The 2023 Global Finals recorded over 300,000 viewers watching the world’s best drop in for a chance to win a share of $500,000 (~£390,000) in prize money. 

The battle royale also featured at the Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports event organised by the Esports World Cup Foundation and backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Warzone’s Esports World Cup event became the biggest prize pool for the battle royale with players competing for $1m (~£779,000). 2024’s World Series of Warzone will also feature a million-dollar prize pool, doubling last year’s offering.

The Esports World Cup will also feature a Modern Warfare 3 competition involving 11 CDL franchises after the Los Angeles Guerrillas reportedly rejected the invitation, four teams competing in Challengers, and the winner of a regional qualifier. Boasting a $1.8m (~£1.4m) prize pool, the tournament is set to feature the largest prize pool of the 2024 Call of Duty season. In addition to a huge amount of prize money, the Esports World Cup features an open qualification, a format no longer used in Activision’s competitions. 

During the Call of Duty World League (CWL) organisations from across the world booked their place in the group stage through seeding while amateurs were also given a chance against the best in the world thanks to one open space in each of the groups. For 2024, the top eight franchises from the regular season secured their place in the season-ending competition ultimately closing off the chance for any amateur teams to compete on the big stage.

There have been calls for Activision to return to an open esports structure that’s now used in the Overwatch Champions Series to create more opportunities for teams outside of the CDL to compete against the best teams.

There’s a possibility changes will take place before the start of the 2023/24 season on Black Ops 6, but with the CDL completely abolishing multi-million dollar entry fees, there’s been no better opportunity for the league to expand from 12 to 16 teams.

The switch from an open ecosystem to a franchise model was met with a mixed reception from fans and players. Four years on, the Call of Duty ecosystem has managed to stand firm in the face of difficulty following the COVID-19 pandemic and has laid the foundations for what could be a prosperous 2025 for the CDL and Warzone.