Warzone gets shock player count change in Season 3 Reloaded update

Warzone players have been demanding that the lobby player count be increased from 150 — but in a surprising twist, the count has actually decreased with the Pacific Season 3 Reloaded update.

Raven Software, the developers of the BR mode, tested a 200-player lobby with a limited-time mode in Modern Warfare’s Season 4 Reloaded, and the tester was pretty well received.

call of duty warzone pacific players walking

Since then, Caldera has been criticized for being too wide open and the community has often called for a permanent increase in lobby size.

However, after a year of waiting for another similar event or for a permanent upgrade, the player count has instead been decreased by a significant amount.

Warzone player parachuting in over Caldera

Warzone player count change explained

How many people in one Warzone game?

In theSeason 3 Reloaded update,Warzone’s player count per game will be decreased from 150 to 120in all core game modes.

This means that all of the Caldera-based game modes will see a 30-man drop in population in a move that hopes to help ease the strain across all platforms.

park operator in warzone season 5

In thepatch notes, they said the following about the change:

“With the addition of new second-chance mechanics, we are very conscious of making sure the mid-game doesn’t feel unfairly claustrophobic compared to the current Battle Royale pacing. We will therefore be trialing a slightly reduced Player count across all core Battle Royale squad sizes,” Raven devs stated.

“We will be carefully reviewing sentiment and data to make sure that the engagement pacing remains more or less in line with the current experience and that Players can still pursue new personal records.”

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In a March 2022interviewwith FaZe Swagg, Raven Creative Lead Josh Bridge stated that the concept of changing player counts had been “internally tested” by the team. However, there were “technical challenges” standing in the way, particularly on last-gen consoles.

During the same interview, Raven Creative Director Ted Timmins also noted that the team is prioritizing new gameplay features over the additions of new game modes and LTMs. Though, he did not rule out the possibility of a max capacity game mode.

The official patch notes state that the development team will monitor the feedback on the player count as Season 3 reloaded happens, so fans may still eventually get their wish of 200-player lobbies at some point in the future.

For more information on what’s changing in Season 3 Reloaded,check out our hubto catch up on all the action.