CoD players think AI bots were secretly added to Warzone

Bots in video games are a prominent issue, especially when developers add them themselves. Now, a Warzone content creator is pointing out that bots may have been silently added to the game, and and there’s some compelling evidence for the theory.

The YouTuber in question is Warzone creator Speros, who shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) on July 24. The video shows a “player” running around the Warzone map aimlessly, who ignores Speros when he speaks in voice chat and approaches. The “player” reacts only when shot—and with remarkable precision and reaction time, prompting the YouTuber to speculate that they just encountered a bot.

“I’m convinced they added bots to Warzone today with the Season 5 update,” Speros wrote in the tweet. This isn’t the only time he encountered this strange opponent, as the creator faced them in the Gulag as well during that same match.

“This has me even more convinced that this is indeed a bot,” he wrote in a separate tweet where he showed the Gulag encounter. Bots have been present in other battle royale titles for years now, namely in Fortnite, but haven’t made an official appearance in Warzone thus far.

Other live-service titles are facing bot farms invading their servers as well, with the worst example likely being Team Fortress 2, which was rendered nigh-unplayable for a long time until Valve stepped in to clear the waves of bots with VAC and account bans.

Bots tend to inflate player numbers as well, making it look like more people were active. It’s unclear, however, if that’s the reason behind their potential inclusion in Warzone. Activision hasn’t commented nor officially announced that bots have been added to their flagship battle royale, so all we can do is speculate.