When is Black Ops 6 season 2? New Zombies map, new battle pass, and more

Call of Duty’s triumphant launch of Black Ops 6 has admittedly sputtered since the end of October, but season two of the game is looking to turn things around.

Interest in BO6 waned over the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, as evidenced by player numbers on Steam and social media sentiment. But with season two coming soon, CoD can be so back just as easily as players have dipped their toes into other titles over recent weeks.

Season one added a ton of content such as new weapons, maps, Ranked Play, and a new Zombies map, so season two has some big shoes to fill when it comes to generating excitement in the player base. Here’s everything we know about BO6’s season two.

BO6 season 2 release date

The start date for BO6 season 2 is Tuesday, Jan. 28. Activision confirmed the news alongside an early look at the content, which can be found below, including the new Zombies map, new weapons, maps, and more.

What time does BO6 season 2 start?

The countdown below takes us to the time of launch on Jan. 28, at 11am CT. The download will be available to pre-load on platforms beforehand so that you can install it right when allowed to get into the action as soon as possible.

What’s new in BO6 and Warzone season 2?

For BO6 Zombies, season two surprisingly includes an all-new Zombies map named The Tomb. This marks the fourth new Zombies map in just three months in BO6, making an incredible impact on the game and its community. The Tomb includes the Staff of Ice Wonder Weapon, new enemy types, new quests, and more.

“After surviving the horrific events at Citadelle des Morts, Weaver, Grey, Carver, and Maya follow Gabriel Krafft’s final words to a nearby excavation site to secure the Sentinel Artifact,” the map’s description reads. The new map promises players will be poking around ancient burial grounds, catacombs, and more generally spooky locales. Surely there’s no undead running around that place, right?

In BO6 multiplayer, there are five maps (including BO2 map Grind), six new weapons, and a new battle pass. Activision also confirmed a collaboration with The Terminator, including a limited time event, and skins featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and his T-800 appearance from the original film. There is also a new season of Ranked Play, and quality-of-life changes such as the ability to track challenges in-game.

There are also new game modes, new limited time events, new Perks Slipstream (“Raises your base sprint speed at the cost of removing Tac Sprint”) and Hunter’s Instinct (“Eliminating an enemy marks the next closest enemy”), Wildcard Flyswatter  (“Allows a player to replace their Dedicated Melee weapon with a Launcher), and War Machine Scorestreak (“Powerful burst-fire grenade launcher with grenades that explode on impact”). And there’s even more to come in the midseason update, Season Two Reloaded, some time in late February or early March.

In Warzone, changes are desperately needed after the lackluster launch in season one, but Activision has confirmed that improvements to the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system will be coming in both seasons two and three. Hackers and cheaters have been sabotaging the Ranked Play experience in Warzone since it launched, so any improvements to anti-cheat will be welcomed.

The Anti-Cheat update in season two includes “New and improved client and server-side detections and systems,” along with a major update to the kernel-level driver on PC, and a “new tampering detection system.”

Warzone also has two new Perks coming in season two, including Reactive Armor (“Your armor will regenerate up to 50 percent if you haven’t taken damage in the last five seconds”) and Low Profile (“You are able to move more quickly while crouched and prone. Move slightly faster when downed”).