When is Ranked Play coming to MW3?

Despite all of the excitement that builds up for the yearly Call of Duty reveal, it always still feels like a bit of a letdown when the new game launches without ranked play on day one, just as Modern Warfare 3 has done.

It’s become an annual tradition for the sweatiest tryhards to be forced to wait for ranked play—and for MW3, it’s happening again. The wait is here, but it’s not quite as long as previous seasons, thankfully.

The ranked play aspect of the next CoD release is handled by Treyarch, which is working in partnership with Sledgehammer for MW3. But unlike previous CoD releases, we have a near-exact idea of when ranked play will launch in MW3.

Here’s what we know about when ranked play is coming to MW3.

MW3 ranked play release date

MW3 Ranked Play is now scheduled to go live on Jan. 18, one day later than originally scheduled, thanks to a delay from the Season One Reloaded launch.

The CODUpdates X account revealed on Jan. 16 that ranked “will not be available immediately after players receive the Season One Reloaded update,” because the development team “will be performing checks before enabling the mode for all players.” But things got worse on launch day.

On Jan. 17, Activision announced that MW3 Ranked Play was delayed entirely due to a “critical issue” and there’s no current new timetable for the mode’s launch.

But the next day, Treyarch confirmed that the bug was fixed and Ranked Play would be coming that day.

What is MW3 Ranked Play?

In the MW3 season one blog, Treyarch detailed a bit of what to expect from the mode, which was described as a mode that “builds upon the foundation established in MW2 with new rewards to earn and updated MW3 maps, weapons, and loadout content.”

“Ranked Play is a feature-packed, stand-alone competitive multiplayer mode that leverages the Call of Duty League approved rules, restrictions, maps, and modes,” the blog said. “Track your standing with a visible skill rating and earn rewards across multiple Skill Divisions and Tiers. The best of the best will be featured in the Top 250 Leaderboard and Division for the chance to prove themselves as the number one player.”

In another detailed blog, Treyarch explained how Ranked Play works, including skill divisions, maps and modes, rules and restrictions, and rewards. You can check out all the information in our guide for Ranked Play.

The wait for Ranked Play has been just over two months, which is shorter than the wait for MW2’s ranked play mode. Ranked play in MW2 didn’t launch until the release of season two, which itself was pushed back from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15 in 2023—more than three months after the game first launched.

Ranked play in Warzone, meanwhile, will come sometime later in 2024, so fans of the battle royale ladder grinding will have to wait a little longer. There’s no concrete date for ranked BR other than this year, so sit tight for more news on that front.