When is Ranked Play coming to Black Ops 6?

Treyarch is one of Call of Duty’s top developers. The makers of Zombies have also made Ranked Play in the past two CoD games, so you know its role as main dev on Black Ops 6 means Ranked Play will be a main attraction.

The developer looks to be at the top of its game again in Black Ops 6, the latest in the long-running CoD sub-franchise that began in 2010. Zombies is back in a big way, but so, too, is Ranked Play in BO6 multiplayer. In Ranked Play, players can rank up by playing with Call of Duty League rules, maps, weapons, and more while earning free rewards as they climb the ranks through different skill divisions and try to become one of the best in the world.

Here’s everything we know about Ranked Play in Treyarch’s Black Ops 6.

Black Ops 6 Ranked Play release date

Black Ops 6 Ranked Play will launch on Nov. 21 during season one, Activision confirmed at Call of Duty Next on Aug. 28. Not long after BO6 launched, Activision announced season one’s release date of Nov. 14, and Ranked Play is a big part of it.

This is just a few short few weeks after the game’s Oct. 25 launch, giving everyone precious time to work on leveling up, upgrading their favorite weapons, and finding what loadouts they want to use against the most competitive players.

Until Ranked Play launches, your best bet is to play through the Zombies mode or ranked matches to level up your account and unlock additional gear. The more equipment you have added to your Black Ops 6 profile, the more options and variety you can use against opponents.

It’s also a great time to try out any new weapons added to the game to see if you can find a new favorite weapon or an ideal combination based on the multiplayer maps. But keep in mind that Ranked Play will follow the Call of Duty League ruleset, meaning anything banned for pro players will also be banned in Ranked.

Weapons like the Model L have already been banned from certain tournaments for being too strong, so don’t be surprised if it’s also banned in Ranked. Our advice is to get familiar with multiple weapons and rank them all up so you’re ready for whenever Ranked Play season one kicks off.

The modes are Hardpoint, Control, and Search and Destroy, but the map pool is a big question mark thus far. Many players are concerned with how the BO6 maps will play in a competitive setting, so stay tuned to see which maps are coming to Ranked Play so you know which spawns to learn on top of basic map knowledge.

How to unlock Ranked Play in BO6

You won’t be able to just begin playing Ranked Play immediately, however. The prerequisite for playing Ranked in BO6 is that you have to win 50 matches before the mode is unlocked, and this is to prevent hackers or cheaters on new accounts from hopping in to the mode immediately.

If you’ve been playing BO6 since launch or shortly thereafter, you should have no problem and the mode should be unlocked already. But if you haven’t, maybe it’s time to try a bit harder in your regular public matches or grab a few friends and stack a lobby up to grab the wins you need in order to get into the Ranked Play playlist.