Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 Start Time: November 6 at Midnight ET

Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 goes live at 12:00 a.m. ET on Friday, November 6, 2026, which is 9:00 p.m. PT on Thursday, November 5 and 5:00 a.m. UTC. Activision says it is one moment across all platforms, so no region gets in early.

Quick answer

• Season 1 opens at 12:00 a.m. ET on Friday, November 6, 2026. That is 5:00 a.m. GMT in the UK, 6:00 a.m. CET in Central Europe, 10:30 a.m. IST in India and 2:00 p.m. JST in Japan.
• It is a season update, not a new game. Multiplayer gets new maps and modes, DMZ gets a new location, and Warzone gets two new maps plus full Modern Warfare 4 integration.
• The Season 1 Battle Pass costs 1,100 COD Points, or 2,400 COD Points for the bundle. COD Points are the store currency Call of Duty prices its passes and bundles in.
• You do not need BlackCell or the Vault Edition. BlackCell is an optional paid tier, and Vault Edition owners only get its contents early.
• More Warzone detail lands on Monday, November 2, 2026. Activision has a separate post and roadmap planned for that day.

What time does Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 start?

Activision’s Season 1 announcement puts the launch at “0000 (midnight) ET on November 6 (2100 PT on November 5)” across all platforms. One moment means the same second everywhere, so there is no early-region advantage to chase.

The countdown box above converts that into your own clock.

New maps and modes in Season 1

Three maps arrive on day one, and the season keeps three more in reserve for mid-season.

Kill Block, the modular training battleground that reconfigures between rounds with more than 500 layouts, gets a featured combo called Crash for the season. Activision says Infinity Ward picked the three static slabs from the combinations players voted for in the Modern Warfare 4 beta, and the combo appears across Core playlists including Search and Destroy.

The new weapons arrive on the Battle Pass track. The Cronen Osprey assault rifle sits at tier 16 and the CSG-35 SMG at tier 36, while the JAK 12 shotgun and the ZLR Talonhawk melee land later in the season. The Osprey carries the Cronen Helix Mk. II, an Apex Attachment that turns it into a double-barrel platform firing on both the trigger pull and the release. The CSG-35 gets the CSG Crossfire attachment, which lets you dual-wield two of them and trade accuracy for chaos.

DMZ gets a new location called X01

DMZ is Call of Duty’s extraction mode: you loot a closed zone, fight other squads and AI, and try to get out alive with your gear.

The Season 1 location is X01, a former Russian weapons facility on the edge of Hajin that North Korean forces have seized. Activision describes it as a GRANIT Arms black site with cargo bays, vehicle depots, underground labs, production lines and a sealed Deep Vault. Ghost is the Watcher for operations inside it, and his updates flag threats and hint at what lies deeper inside as you push in.

New enemies come with the location. Two Lieutenants, Tae-Hyun (“Knuckle”) and Chol-Min (“The Wrench”), and two Commanders, The Captain, a Juggernaut with an elite guard, and an autonomous Wheelson that patrols on its own.

Your Forward Operating Base, the in-game hub where you manage your gear between deployments, gains a Battle Pass and Store Station next to the Survival Kit Station, a Vendor that sells extra gear with DMZ Cash if you own Season 1 BlackCell, and a 3D Printer that Activision has marked [CLASSIFIED].

The Battle Pass: 1,100 COD Points and a catch-up system

The catch-up rule is the part worth knowing. Activision says players who fall behind on the premium track are automatically caught up to the reward matching their current day of the season, up to day 50. Buy the pass on launch night and play irregularly, and the first half of the track is not lost.

Clearing all 100 tiers adds the “Vantage” operator skin for Blix, a “Blue Viper” Hyeon Burst blueprint, 200 COD Points, the “Honor’s Harbinger” calling card and the “Virtue’s Snarl” emblem. The bundle also carries a 10% Battle Pass XP boost for the season, up to 1,100 COD Points, the “Downpour” operator skin for Blix and a DMZ Survival Kit.

Do you need BlackCell or the Vault Edition?

No. BlackCell is Activision’s optional premium tier, and the season content for everybody else arrives with the update. BlackCell buyers get the XERO operator and skin variants for it, 1,100 COD Points, the “Perimeter Lance” M4 and “Occultus” signature blueprints plus “Exitium” variants, the “Dog Food” companion finishing move, a custom lobby scene, a mastery camo track, 20 tier skip tokens, a DMZ survival pack and the BlackCell clan tag.

Vault Edition owners can unlock this season’s BlackCell offering. Digital Standard Edition owners can upgrade to the Vault Edition later, as long as the upgrade happens on the same platform as the original purchase. If you upgrade to BlackCell after buying the Battle Pass, Activision says the 1,100 COD Points come back to you.

Warzone on November 6

Warzone is part of the same update. Two new maps arrive, Hajin and Zodiac, Verdansk and Rebirth Island return, and Modern Warfare 4 becomes fully integrated into the free-to-play game. Activision says it will publish a separate Warzone post and roadmap on Monday, November 2, 2026, so the season launch is not the last word on Warzone.

What is still unannounced

• The Warzone season roadmap, which Activision has scheduled for that Monday.
• The full mid-season map list. Activision names Ministry and Overflow and says more are coming, with intel dropping during the Season 1 Reloaded comms.
• Dates for the in-season events. The post names the Wager Match, Weapon Camo and Squad Up events without dates.

We analyzed Activision’s official Season 1 announcement on October 30, 2026 and compared it with the launch build Activision listed in its maps and modes post. For example, the launch roster was 20 maps, and Season 1 opens with three new ones and promises three more at mid-season, so the map count is not what changes this season. The Battle Pass rework is. A 100-tier track carrying 100+ rewards is a grind on its own, and the catch-up rule that pulls a late premium owner up to the reward for their current day of the season, up to day 50, is worth more to a launch-week buyer than any of the three new maps.

For the launch itself, see our Modern Warfare 4 release-time guide, our multiplayer beginner’s guide and the Modern Warfare 4 hub, which also tracks the launch-week patch notes.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report