Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 isn’t on the disc

If you buy the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 physical version, you still have to download the entire game

You may have bought a physical version of Activision’s latest FPS game, but Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 isn’t on the disc except for a very small portion of it – the game launcher. That 70MB install then prompts you to download the rest of the game, all 72GB of it. The choice is a curious one. PS5 and Xbox Series X use discs that can hold up to 100GB of data, well beyond Modern Warfare 2’s standard file size. 

Modern Warfare 2 is only 11GB larger than 2021’s Call of Duty Vanguard, which Activision included on the disc so players could install it directly, without a download and the wait that it entails. Sony has yet to remove download speed caps that it implemented during the initial round of COVID-19 lockdowns, so downloading 72GB of data can take hours, to say nothing of taking a chunk out of consumers’ internet data caps.

[mm-video type=video id=01ggfk7nbhwq5fgt2258 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ggfk7nbhwq5fgt2258/01ggfk7nbhwq5fgt2258-43f29213323e20d16d29fb84a71b6176.jpg]

Activision made no comment about its decision to include only the game launcher on the disc, so it’s unlikely to change in future prints of the game. Just bear that in mind if you’re on the fence about going physical or digital for this year’s Call of Duty.

Once you do get the game up and running, check out our Modern Warfare 2 safe codes list to get the loot with no hassle and maybe consider turning crossplay off if you don’t want to face off against mouse-and-keyboard users.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

[listicle id=1977801]