Call of Duty rival threatens Modern Warfare 4 release after half-price launch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 already has a fierce rival in new Steam release WARDOGS which is available for nearly half the price of the popular FPS from Activision.

We’re just over a month away from the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, the latest release in Activision’s goliath first-person shooter series and despite GTA VI also being on the horizon, this year's latest military shooter entry will no doubt be flying high once more in the sales charts.

Call of Duty rival WARDOGS takes Steam by storm after launch

WARDOGS, developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17, only released on Steam on September 10, 2026, and already, it’s dominating player numbers on the PC platform in what could be one of the best breakout games of 2026.

Right now, WARDOGS costs £36.99/$39.99 for the standard edition and £45.99/$49.99 for the Supporter Edition (which comes with cosmetic extras).

That's almost half of what it costs for the standard edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (£69.99/$69.99). The Vault Edition will set you back £99.99/$99.99.

Competitive pricing helps, but a bargain price alone won’t carry its impressive concurrent numbers on Steam.

What is WARDOGS exactly?

“WARDOGS is an all-out warfare FPS that combines tactical gunplay and combined arms combat with building and destruction mechanics in a large-scale, up to 100-player militaristic sandbox,” reads the description of the game.

“The game mode - inspired by ‘King of the Hill ' - has three teams fight for control of randomised 2x2 km ‘Control Zones’ within larger maps. The team with the most players within the Control Zone earns points - the first team to reach 100 points wins the match. The variables in zone location and individual player tactics mean no match ever plays out the same.”

WARDOGS, Team17

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What is the community reaction to WARDOGS on Steam?

At the time of writing, on Steam, WARDOGS is rated as “Very Positive” from over 37,000 user reviews.

“Battlefield, COD, and just about every other FPS game I've ever played do not compare to the fun I've had in this game. If only this was released BEFORE I bought Battlefield 6, then I'd have never bought it,” wrote Clone4082.

“This game came out of the blue for me, but as someone who grew up with BF3 and CoD4 and has been looking for the same experience I once had, I can wholeheartedly say: I've found it,” declared Toasty.

“The game is a fantastic take on the FPS genre; it's not a Battlefield or CoD-style shooter, though. It requires coordination and communication between team members in order to win, but even losses are fun in this. It's still in early access, so it needs work and polish, but overall it's definitely worth the pickup,” recommended MicroMadMan.

Right now, WARDOGS is firmly set at number one as currently the best-selling game on Steam. Which should come as no surprise after it was recently announced on the game's official X account that it has sold over two million copies since launch. No doubt, that number has continued to grow since.

Furthermore, according to SteamDB, WARDOGS currently has an all-time concurrent player peak of 428,666. It has had 339,753 concurrent players over the last 24 hours, and right now, there are 180,557 playing.

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Is WARDOGS coming to consoles?

You’ll be pleased to know that the developers intend to release WARDOGS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

However, you’re going to need some patience. WARDOGS is currently in its early access phase on Steam, so it’s technically still in active development, despite having a very popular build already.

Understandably, Bulkhead will want to iron out any bugs and make improvements based on player feedback from early access before releasing WARDOGS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

As for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, it arrives on October 23, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2.