Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War ranked play is still coming to the game, but Treyarch isn’t willing to commit to a timetable yet.
The Black Ops developer has always stopped just short of laying out official plans for adding a dedicated ranked multiplayer mode to the game. However studio design director David Vonderhaar has heavily indicated (opens in new tab) that Treyarch would like to add a ranked playlist on several occasions (opens in new tab).
Reddit user The_Wxly7 asked if Ranked mode is “still going to be a thing” now that they’ve finished the camo grind, and a verified Treyarch community manager wrote back with this response (opens in new tab): “Yes. Ranked Play will be a thing. I currently don’t have a timetable to share with you, however.”
It’s fairly common for Call of Duty games to be released without ranked play modes for their competitive multiplayer – some receive them in a post-launch update, others don’t. With the new-game shine worn off since Cold War’s release in November, and corners of the player community complaining about the effects of skill-based matchmaking on their play habits, this does seem like an especially key time for Treyarch to either lock down competitive plans or start talking about alternatives.
Meanwhile, the developers are teasing a new Zombies map for Black Ops Cold War, and regularly releasing Black Ops Cold War patch notes to improve PS5 stability and other issues.
Even if you don’t own Black Ops Cold War, you can try out its Zombies mode in the first free week of its kind for the Call of Duty series starting on Thursday.