Call of Duty is reportedly skipping its annual entry in 2023

Call of Duty Warzone — (Image credit: Activision)

Update: An Activision spokesperson reached out to GamesRadar with a response to the below report, explaining that there are multiple Call of Duty "experiences" planned for the coming years.

The statement doesn't challenge any specific elements of our story or Bloomberg's original reporting, but it does characterize recent reports as inaccurate.

Here's the statement in full:

"We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. Reports of anything otherwise are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right."

Original story:

Activision has reportedly decided to delay next year's Call of Duty out of 2023, though it's said that the recently confirmed Modern Warfare sequel is still due out this year.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Activision is planning a big showing for next year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sequel - so big apparently that the publisher has cleared out a second year to support the game. If confirmed, 2023 will be the first year since 2004 without an annual Call of Duty game.

In the same report, it's said that Treyarch, the studio developing the delayed and untitled Call of Duty, will now help with the development of an unspecified free-to-play online title launching next year. It would seem that the report is referring to Call of Duty: Warzone 2 as the free-to-play game, but that's unconfirmed. Treyarch's next mainline Call of Duty game is now said to be due out in 2024.

Call of Duty: Vanguard's middling commercial performance is cited as a primary reason for the decision to delay. Apparently, the title's lackluster sales led some executives to consider the possibility that the publisher is launching Call of Duty titles too closely together. It's unclear if Activision plans to continue spacing out Call of Duty releases after 2024 or resume its traditional yearly schedule.