How Verdansk saved Warzone from dying

Bringing back Verdansk was possibly the best choice Call of Duty could have made to save Warzone. For those unaware, Warzone wasn't performing well after its integration with Black Ops 6 - the shooter had several problems, and fans simply grew tired of them. Rampant cheating, bugs and glitches, server stability issues, and more rendered the game unplayable for many players.

The situation was so grave that the developers had to push back content for Season 2 to address the issues plaguing the game. Most fans hated the Season 1 and Season 2 updates of Warzone, and the game started losing players, especially on PC. Fortunately, it did not remain that way for long.

How the return of Verdansk saved Warzone from dying

Verdansk was the original Warzone map. When the game was released, fans fell in love with it. However, the map was removed from the game in December 2021, and since then, fans have been asking the developers to bring it back.

These requests, fortunately, didn't fall on deaf ears. Nearly four years after removing the map, Call of Duty added Verdansk back to the game. The glorious map had returned with improved visuals and support for all the latest gameplay mechanics. In fact, it was one of the most stable updates in ages.

Discussing Warzone player count after Verdansk's return (Image via SteamDB)

Fans cheered, and the game slowly started gaining players. Since its addition, the game has consistently maintained its increased player count. On Steam, just before the Season 3 update, the shooter had reached only 53,000 concurrent players. However, right after Verdansk joined the game, the numbers shot up to nearly 140,000 players, the highest the game has seen this year.

Even on PlayStation, the shooter had reached the most played status in a few countries.

Since then, the battle royale title has maintained a player count of nearly 100,000 players every day. This data makes it evident that the title made a huge comeback as soon as the map returned. But was it only the map? Well, yes and no.

Verdansk is one of the most beloved Warzone maps, and that alone brought back players. However, simply bringing the map back without fixing the other issues wouldn't have led to the game's resurgence.

Also read: "Verdansk is incredible for 1 simple reason": COD fan points out why WZ has become great again

If it were only the map, the title would have likely seen a surge for a few days, and then it would have taken a turn for the worse. But fortunately, it didn't. If you're wondering why, a lot of issues that were plaguing the game have been addressed. The number of cheaters has reduced, thanks to Call of Duty cracking down on the cheating service providers. Many bugs and glitches have been addressed, and the game is almost perfect.

Apart from these problems, the time to kill was lowered, movement was tuned, the looting system saw changes, and many more adjustments were made that impacted how the title played.

All these changes were exactly what the community asked for, and the developers simply delivered. This shows that if you give the fans what they want, it could go a long way. Call of Duty listening to their fans and bringing back Verdansk has, without a doubt, saved Warzone.

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About the author

Rishabh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda who mainly covers Call of Duty and Valorant content. After completing his post-graduation in Finance, he went off the beaten track and decided to build a career in video game journalism. The opportunity to interview Valorant Pacific franchised teams back during VCT 2023: Pacific was a career highlight for Rishabh.

Rishabh prioritizes diving into the game himself and figuring out the specifics to ensure authenticity of content. He also tracks the social media accounts and blogs of developers and publishers to learn about official announcements and press releases, and cross-checks all facts even if they are derived from reputed sources.

Rishabh embarked on his video game journey in 2002, playing Contra and Mario, and his first AAA title was Max Payne 1. Currently, first-person shooter games engage him the most.

Rishabh regards streamer and esports athlete Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek as an inspirational figure since he rose from a humble background to become one of the biggest CS players and streamers in the world through sheer hard work and dedication.

Rishabh likes to keep himself updated on the latest trends in technology and listens to progressive rock music in his spare time.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar