Warzone is finally increasing its lobby size to prepare for Verdansk, and players think it’s about damn time

Grab the squad and get ready to fire up Call of Duty again, because the lobby size is increasing from the 120 number that nobody seems to like.

In a welcome surprise announcement today, Warzone developer Raven Software confirmed that battle royale will be increasing to 150 players across all standard playlists. It may or may not end up being a permanent addition, with more news to follow.

“You may notice something a little different starting today,” Raven said in its cheeky reveal. “In preparation for future updates, we will begin intermittently testing 150 players across standard Battle Royale playlists. We will be closely monitoring player feedback, performance, and overall impact on match flow over the coming weeks.”

The move comes about three weeks ahead of the assumed date of season three, which will most likely mark the long-anticipated return of Warzone’s original and most popular map, Verdansk. It was first confirmed to be coming back last year at Call of Duty Next, and it should return in the new season to coincide with the game’s fifth anniversary coming up on March 10.

Today’s announcement was met with universal praise, especially with Verdansk on the horizon, which was a bigger map with more buildings and area to cover, and thus worked better with a higher player count than what the game recently used.

According to leaks, Verdansk will be similar to how it originally launched in 2020 with less of the changes and innovations that came in the months and year following. The new season my also bring back classic OG Warzone weapons, like the Grau 5.56, CR56 AMAX, HDR, and others.

If these weapons do actually return, the whole season may end up being one big nostalgia fest for the original version of CoD’s free-to-play BR. When it dropped on March 10, 2020, it hit directly at the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and gamers the world over grouped up to drop in together while observing quarantine orders, creating some memorable and fun times in an otherwise scary situation.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years, but increasing the player count to 150 players along with Verdansk coming back will go a long way towards bringing players back for the anniversary and potentially even longer.

CoD’s season three for Black Ops 6 and Warzone has no confirmed release date yet, but it will likely launch on March 19 or 20, as evidenced by the season two battle pass’s in-game timer.