The Call of Duty series has existed since 2003 and in addition to various spin-offs, including for the handheld systems Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, 14 major titles of the series have now been released. Ever since the first part of the series, great emphasis has been placed on the online multiplayer mode in addition to the single-player campaign, which is also reflected in the development of the shooter series.

Call of Duty - Everything you need to know

For almost 20 years now, Call of Duty has dominated the shooter genre like no other game. Probably the best-known casual shooter in the world recently got another boost with Warzone, and the latest installment in the series, Vanguard, takes us back to the beginning - to World War II. But how has Call of Duty evolved over the years? Here's the story of CoD. Call of Duty is by no means the first shooter, but it has shaped the genre of FPS (first person shooter) games like no other. It's not for nothing that almost every gamer has heard of Call of Duty and probably played one or two parts of it themselves. But how did it come about in the first place? Is every Call of Duty the same? Is there an Esports scene? We'll get to the bottom of all these questions today.

How long has Call of Duty been around?

The first Call of Duty came out in 2003 - yes, if you played the first CoD, you're already considered a grandpa among gamers by now. The first part of the series sent us into the Second World War in the skin of various soldiers of the allied forces. Even then, the campaign was considered a fun action spectacle, and that hasn't changed until today. In addition to the campaign, however, the original Call of Duty also already offered a multiplayer mode, which also enabled the start of a growing Esports scene.

Although we all know today that a new Call of Duty is released every year, we actually had to wait until 2005 for Call of Duty 2 in the beginning - a whole two years. However, there was never to be such a long CoD lull again to this day. Since 2005, we have received a new Call of Duty title on our hard drive every year. If you don't count spin-offs like Call of Duty: Mobile, Call of Duty: Online or Call of Duty: Warzone, we'll have received an incredible 18 CoDs by 2021.

Who's developing Call of Duty?

How does that work? Simple. Publisher Activison employs numerous development studios, which take turns to take care of the new Call of Dutys. By and large, there are currently three studios that take care of the development of the annual releases: Infinity Ward (first CoD studio and especially known for the Modern Warfare series), Treyarch (especially known for the Black Ops series), Sledgehammer Games (known for Advanced Warfare, WWII and the current Vanguard). In addition to these three main studios, there are numerous smaller studios that help with development. The best known of these is probably Raven Software, which took over the main responsibility for the development of Warzone with its launch.

What is Call of Duty all about?

In short: Shooting! The series started with a World War II setting and returns here regularly. However, more current and even future settings are also covered. The Modern Warfare series deals with more current conflicts and counter-terrorism, while the Black Ops series deals with diverse settings like the Cold War, but also the future. In addition to battles in World War II or the Middle East, we can also fight in outer space in Infinite Warfare, for example. In Call of Duty, there are no limits to the environment in which you can shoot.

How does Call of Duty work?

Call of Duty is a typical first person shooter. We control a soldier in the first person perspective and can spread chaos with numerous weapons in quite fast-paced battles. A cinematic single player campaign as well as a multiplayer mode have always been part of CoD. However, it must be clearly stated that the modern multiplayer shooter was first shaped by Modern Warfare (2007) and especially Modern Warfare 2 (2009). These two titles introduced for the first time the incredibly motivating system of rewarding all actions in multiplayer matches with XP. This way you could unlock weapons, skins and other cosmetics, leading to a true addictive spiral. Since then, this system has been adopted in pretty much every competitive shooter.

However, the developers soon introduced a third mode alongside campaign and multiplayer. In 2008, the Zombies mode made its first appearance in CoD: World at War, which has always enjoyed great popularity as a third co-op mode, especially in the Black Ops series. While Treyarch and Sledgehammer focus on the aforementioned Zombies mode, Infinity Ward introduced the Spec Ops mode with Modern Warfare 2. This co-op mode offers several independent missions that can be played on different difficulty levels.

Does Call of Duty Esports exist?

What a question... Of course! Right at the beginning of the Call of Duty franchise, the so-called Major League Gaming (MLG) began to form, a company that hosted the first Call of Duty tournaments. With the purchase of the website Gamebattles, the CoD tournaments soon expanded until the first really big tournament took place in 2009 with the Major League Championship. Here names like Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, Raymond "Rambo" Lussier, Will "Bigtymer" Johnson or Brandon "Sharp" Rodgers first appeared on the scene. Nadeshot is best known today as the CEO of the Esports organization "100 Thieves". In 2010, even more well-known names like Scump, Teepee and Aches appeared on the scene, which helped the scene to grow in attention. After a few years, the MLG was eventually replaced by the official Call of Duty World League, which resulted in the current Call of Duty League (CDL) in 2019.

Since its inception, 12 teams have competed in the CDL, each representing a city. Since it is a franchise league, spots in the league must be purchased, so it is not possible to simply "move up" to the CDL as a team. Because of this system, the teams usually stay the same, they just swap players among themselves at the end of each season. Overall, it can be said that CoD has always been a very competitive game, but the CDL is a very small and exclusive club, which is why it can hardly compete with Esports giants like CS:GO or League of Legends.

Besides the official Call of Duty League, there are also numerous tournaments in the free Battle Royale offshoot of Call of Duty thanks to Warzone. Here, small and large streamers, content creators and sometimes even CDL pros regularly compete against each other and fight for not inconsiderable cash prizes.

What is the current Call of Duty?

The current Call of Duty is called CoD: Vangurad, was developed by Sledgehammer and is again set in World War II. In terms of gameplay, it is clearly more oriented towards the Modern Warfare series, which is especially evident in the very fast time to kill and some functions, such as propping up weapons. In addition to the usual action-packed campaign and excellent multiplayer, Vanguard once again features a Zombies mode. If you want to dive deeper into Vanguard, we have already looked at the best weapons in Vanguard and also prepared some map guides for you.

What is Warzone?

Call of Duty: Warzone is a standalone game that exists alongside the annual releases. The game was released in 2019 as a free Battle Royale spin-off of the then-current Modern Warfare (2019). Warzone is completely free to download and play. It can be played exclusively in multiplayer in so-called Battle Royal modes. Here, up to 150 players are dropped onto a large map and, depending on the mode, fight for survival alone, in duos, trios or quads. The last player or team wins.

What makes Warzone special is that all the other CoDs that have been released since then are integrated into the game. Warzone launched with the weapons and mechanics from Modern Warfare (2019), a year later the weapons from Black Ops Cold War were added and the map was slightly adjusted. Now, in early December 2021, the third CoD will be integrated into Warzone with Vanguard, which also brings a completely new map for the Battle Royale. The standalone game enjoys great popularity and has been one of the most streamed games on Twitch since its release.