Modern Warfare 2 hits 25m unique players

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 March, 2010

"DLC details coming this week."

Infinity Ward community man Robert Bowling tweeted overnight that Modern Warfare 2 has racked up a whopping 25 million online players.

"...annnd we JUST hit 25 MILLION unique players on Modern Warfare 2. Insanity! Also, got a lot of #MW2 DLC details coming this week! FINALLY!" he wrote.

"That's 25 million unique across all platforms. Most on Xbox 360, then a close 2nd goes to PS3, [with] millions more on PC," he added.

"We can only track those who connect to online, so this is online only! Also, you're correct, this is dominating COD4's numbers!"

Modern Warfare 2 was released on 10th November last year, meaning the game has taken just four months to be played by 25 million people.

Check out our Modern Warfare 2 review if you're not one of them. Or indeed if you are. Or else.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • davisorle #1 2 years ago

    @SPAM
    Read carefully, thats 25m online unique players. Not sales.

  • GitSomE_UK #2 2 years ago

    Excellent news about the DLC, hopefully it'll free up the BFBC2 servers

  • MiniAmin #3 2 years ago

    I hate to be cliche but this game really is bloody boring online. It's barely been a month and i'm completely disillusioned with it.

    I'll check out the DLC when it arrives, but if it's worse than the current crop of maps then it's "hellooooo Battlefield".

  • LHH #4 2 years ago

    I'm guessing it's a unique ip address or something. Anyhoo, I'll see what the dlc brings but otherwise I'm really liking BC2's multi at the mo, it's not half as frustrating (I suck at both games)

  • Fab4 #5 2 years ago

    If 95% of them are dickheads, just how unique are they? ;)

  • BritishBlue1 #6 2 years ago

    Interesting how many people enjoy mediocre gameplay, personally I traded my copy in for Bad Company 2.

  • Ryboy #7 2 years ago

    DLC?!

    I don't want DLC, just give us dedicated fucking severs and an SDK.

    IWnet is the worst thing about the game.

  • davisorle #8 2 years ago

    @SPAM

    Actually, I believe its how many profiles. NOT signed in copies. Excuse me if I'm wrong but sounds like it. Makes more mathsense.

  • jstar #9 2 years ago

    Come on MW2 is bloody good fun online. Bad Company just happens to about a billion gazillion times better in every possible way you can measure it and in all the ways you can't.

  • LR100 #10 2 years ago

    They should have tried to get DLC out a lot sooner. If this turns out to be CoD4's DLC all over again, i'll be quite disappointed. WaW got it right with 3 packs, including the zombie modes too. MW2 needs to have 3 map packs and more spec ops missions chucked in.

  • DoctorZoidberg #11 2 years ago

    I was originally very impressed by MW2 online, and was an avid fan of the first one. A good friend of mine lives in Guernsey, and MW1 was a great way to catch up over a bit of shooting. But MW2 has gone very stale. Once we exhausted Spec Ops, we were left with only online normally. And I FUCKING HATE the fact you can't be in party chat. I hate that so much. Why? WHY? It makes no sense. Now you could argue that we could mute everyone, but I shouldn't have to, and I don't want to inconvenience them with our personal chat.

  • sfp_noodle #12 2 years ago

    hmm perhaps thts why play.com is promoting it? currently £24.99 on both ps3 and 360 and i think i might finally buy it...

  • rudedudejude #13 2 years ago

    It'll be even more now play are selling it for £25 notes :)

  • Xerx3s #14 2 years ago

    "Come on MW2 is bloody good fun online. Bad Company just happens to about a billion gazillion times better in every possible way you can measure it and in all the ways you can't."

    The problem with MW2 is that it is a buggy, laggy pos that lacks variation. The only time when it is fun online is when you play with people you know but you can do that in any game. That and the SP is laughable. It being made by activision doesn't help either.

  • Johnsters #15 2 years ago

    I'd be happy if the DLC contained the old MW1 maps. I enjoyed some of them.


  • Drone #16 2 years ago

    @ DoctorZoidberg

    If your only chatting to one person just do a private chat through live with them.

    Oh and BC2 online > MW2 online

  • sfp_noodle #17 2 years ago

    i find it funny tht ive been negged for saying tht i might actually be buying a game tht is quite cheap. im sorry i cudnt join in with all the lag/glitch/suicide/negative xp boosting from day one. maybe now the game isn't so broken acti can have a bit of my money

    *rolls eyes*

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    Oh good. It'll keep all the halfwits from persisting with camping the helo spawn in BC2 so they can jump in, lift off and immediately crash into a hill.

  • paketep #19 2 years ago

    So, Wormtongue Bowling resumes the usual lying with nary a word about the big fuckup at IW?.

    Amazing. I thought that even he had a bit of human inside. Guess I was wrong.

  • Jay-ITFC #20 2 years ago

    DLC looks like it will be 1200 points - Amazon selling this pre-order: http://ww w.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Call-D... Similar to what GTA4 did for DLC.

  • Istherion #21 2 years ago

    MW 2 > BC 2 by far

    BC 2 just doesn't have the smooth gameplay that MW 2 has...

    Call of Duty series (Well 4-5-6 that is) is like the frickin' World of Warcraft of shooters - No other game is gonna beat it.

    Ofcourse this is just my opinion.

  • anathema #22 2 years ago

    No DLC for me now that BC2 is out, you missed the boat IW. Its weird but I found I enjoyed WaWs MP more than MW2, having loved MW1 I can't explain why, it just seems less gritty and the maps aren't as good as MW1 IMO.

  • Terribly_Mauled #23 2 years ago

    Havent even tried Multi, same with CoD4. Figured after the first weekend it would be impenetrable and full of mouthy yanks so havent bothered.

  • DoctorZoidberg #24 2 years ago

    @ Drone

    You can't even do that! It comes up with a prompt saying you HAVE to be in the game chat, or it asks you to leave the game!

  • oreillymj #25 2 years ago

    25 million. That's numberwang!

  • shadowaspect #26 2 years ago

    Zoidberg, that's where the PC wins! :D Group of mates on Ventrilo (or Teamspeak).

  • Mnia786 #27 2 years ago

    Until they fix magic bullets and that piece of shit they call a spawn system (kill someone at the top of the stairs so they spawn downstairs), they are NOT getting another penny out of me. Also, the lack of good maps will make me re-consider - unlike Treyarch who make spectacular maps for all 3 MP's and had extra zombies content. As much as IW blast Treyarch, they know how to make a balanced MP with maps other than buildings in the middle and try to give us a tdm TDM on something the size of my back garden..(rust)

    @oreillymj - KILL THEM AHAHAH!
    Edited by 2 at 09/03/10 @ 11:53

  • rhinoxious #28 2 years ago

    I'm still enjoying the multiplayer after around 3 days of total playtime, which is double what I played of COD4.

    I still find the odd nook or cranny in the maps that I hadn't seen before, I've barely scratched the surface of the new demolition mode and I'm now really enjoying my P90 run-and-gun play having finally getting round to unlocking Lightweight Pro and Akimbo USP45s. I also switched from Harrier/Pave Low/Chopper to Airdrop/Sentry gun/big airdrop which makes things different again.

    It's not the greatest game, I hate the singleplayer, but it's a brilliant console shooter for a quick couple of rounds before bed.

  • rhinoxious #29 2 years ago

    @Mnia786

    Magic bullets?

  • homerramone #30 2 years ago

    25M unique players - which is going to be based on IDs on the leaderboard most likely.
    Therefor 5M real players, and 20M sad acts who have either created mutiple PSN accounts, or used several 48HR/1 Month trials so they can go online and be utter cocks w/o the risk of an account ban.

  • Skooch #31 2 years ago

    @ Zoidberg - when you mute someone they also cannot hear you. Go ahead and mute everyone and chat with your mate, you won't be annoying anyone.

  • beastmaster #32 2 years ago

    Original Maps from MW1?

  • BobsUncle #33 2 years ago

    @rhinoxious

    He might be referring to your bullets that vanish once you're dead. So you fire, actually see the bullets leave your gun and have it recoil but at that instant get killed and your bullets get deleted from the world and you don't get a kill.

    That's why I stopped playing MW2. That and the fact BC2 is better.

  • Dave797 #34 2 years ago

    I have to say that regardless of DLC my modern warefare 2 is Being left to rot in the wake of the truely fantastic BBC2.

  • dbranchevans #35 2 years ago

    Its quite reassuring to me to be honest to see plenty of comments on here around how people loved MW1 but were left cold by 2. I thought maybe I one of the few! Honest truth is, I did a swap with a mate to borrow borderlands after 3 days and haven't bothered swapping back for five months, doubt very much the DLC will entice me otherwise because simply *whisper*

    Bad Company 2 is better than both 1 and 2- no killstreaks, vehicles and really really interesting maps. Only real shame for me is it doesn't have a larger number of players but otherwise its just better in every way (oh and I logged around 3 weeks worth of gametime by the end of playing MW1!!!)

  • des #36 2 years ago

    And people still think that other shooters can compete with MW2....lol

  • Mnia786 #37 2 years ago

    @rhino + bob - They are one type of magic bullet. The second is when you run behind cover whilst being shot at an amazingly, you die when behind cover - seems the bullets can go around corners. Love Borderlands though - they just need to fix the friends and mic thing ;/

  • BobsUncle #38 2 years ago

    @Mnia786

    No, that's actually part of the game, the bullet penetration thing was a big thing in MW:1, you also get challenges for killing people behind cover so that's not a bug at all.

    Although, some things have some weird toughness values, I can shoot through brick and stone with the FAL, but the metal window frames around the windows in 'Highrise' will stop even sniper bullets!

  • Fab4 #39 2 years ago

    Magic bullet is the artefact of a server-side hit detection. The death is a result of you being shot where the server thought you were when your opponent fired.

  • Shikasama #40 2 years ago

    Say what you like about the game or the people who play it, that's damn impressive

  • KayJay #41 2 years ago

    This DLC is going to have to be good to pull me away from the rather excellent B:BC2.

  • AphoticCosmos #42 2 years ago

    Modern whatnow?

    Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of the awesomeness of BFBC2

  • Skire #43 2 years ago

    Oh come on people. Stop hating on something popular just because you think it makes you cool and stand out from the crowd. Deep inside, you know you like Modern Warfare 2. Name me one good arcade fist person shooter next to Call of Duty 4 and Counter-Strike 1.6.

  • markmitt #44 2 years ago

    MW2 = broken turd. That's why I got rid of mine months ago. People blaming my connection for lag, when I have Virgins 50Mb service. I understand it does play well when it works, but that is so often not the case it's not even worth bothering with! Hit people with entire clips from behind and nothing! Hit people with 4 headshots with sniper and nothing! Got MAG to cater for my online killing. Good at first, but now gone the sameway. BFBC is my newest baby. Fingers crossed that doesn't go the same way