Call of Duty: MW4's DMZ early access is live, full launch on October 23

Modern Warfare 4's extraction mode DMZ is open on Steam. In a post titled "DMZ Early Access Deployment to Hajin Is Live" on October 20, the developers announced that the Hajin exclusion zone is active for early access players, ahead of the game's full launch on October 23. Modern Warfare 4 runs through the Call of Duty app on Steam, which also hosts Black Ops 7 and Warzone.

According to Notebookcheck, DMZ early access is open to players who digitally pre-ordered the Standard or Vault Edition on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, Steam or Nintendo Switch 2. PC Gamer puts the full release at midnight local time on October 23, and Destructoid says DMZ opens for everyone at that point. The sixteen-mission campaign, which follows Private Park Hyun Jun through an invasion of the Korean Peninsula while John Price hunts the one pulling the strings, has been playable for pre-order customers since October 16.

The app is climbing on Steam. On the most played chart for October 19 it ranked 16th with a peak of 75,870 players, up 32 places from 48th a week earlier. On October 20 at 22:41 UTC, 83,213 people were playing, ninth by current players, with a peak of 112,541 that day.

What DMZ offers

Windows Central notes that DMZ was previously tried in the Modern Warfare II era and now returns without a beta tag. The loop is to drop in, complete objectives, earn loot and extract. Hajin launches with nine points of interest, among them Hajin City, Casino, Fallout, Hospital and Military Base. Destructoid confirms that DMZ is not free-to-play at launch: it is the third mode in the paid package, next to Campaign and Multiplayer.

An official post from October 19 lays out progression. DMZ has its own 70-level track, separate from the 55 Multiplayer levels, fed by Story Missions, Dynamic Operations and Side Ops and unlocking gear, stations, 3D printer recipes, Operator skins and fire support. DMZ XP also counts toward the 55 player levels, but Multiplayer and Warzone XP does not count toward DMZ. Notebookcheck adds that XP still counts when you fail to exfil, and that a pack with secure slots protects items when an extraction fails. Infinity Ward's Geoff Smith told Destructoid the old beta lacked tension because of "a lack of holding on to the stuff you pull out." Of the 33 Operators at launch, some unlock through campaign missions or DMZ levels, while others come as pre-order or Vault Edition incentives.

Early verdicts

Kotaku reports there are no scored reviews yet, since critics are waiting for more time with multiplayer and DMZ, but calls the impressions much better than the launch reception of last year's Black Ops 7. Its roundup quotes a verdict that the six-hour, 16-mission campaign is "the best we've seen since Modern Warfare 2019", and a more critical PC Gamer line calling it "more like a sprint to be done with it all."

On DMZ, GameSpot's review in progress shows a provisional 8. It praises Hajin and the new progression, but criticizes that the mode is no longer free-to-play and that the Vault Edition gives paying players an advantage. Windows Central's hands-on calls Hajin "a massive map that feels dense and alive", unlike the beta's Al Mazrah. Destructoid had warned earlier that three days of extra progression could hand early players an edge. On Steam, the shared app holds a Mixed rating, with 58 percent of 787,704 reviews positive.

For anyone deciding now: DMZ early access requires a digital pre-order of the Standard or Vault Edition, and at launch the mode is part of the paid package rather than free-to-play. Everyone else gets in at midnight local time on October 23. According to Notebookcheck, Xbox has told Game Pass members the game is not included at launch, with availability starting in holiday 2027. From Season 1, Warzone XP will also count toward the 55 player levels.