Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Overview

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a 2009 first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the sixth game in the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was released worldwide on November 10, 2009, for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The campaign follows Task Force 141, a multinational special forces unit commanded by Captain Soap MacTavish, as it hunts Vladimir Makarov, leader of the Russian Ultranationalist party, while United States Army Rangers defend the Washington, D.C. area from a Russian invasion. The main playable characters are Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson of the 141 and Private James Ramirez of the Army Rangers, with MacTavish becoming playable later in the campaign.

There are three modes. Campaign is single player, with eighteen levels joined by one plot, four difficulties, and replayable levels. Spec Ops has twenty-three extra levels that can be played alone or with a partner, in five tiers that unlock as you earn stars. Multiplayer has team and deathmatch game types on many maps, with killstreaks, deathstreaks, experience points, levels, unlockable weapons and perks.

Development began in 2008, when it was still known as Call of Duty 6. It uses the IW 4.0 engine, an improved version of the one used for Call of Duty 4. Activision officially announced the game on February 11, 2009. Unlike Call of Duty 4 and World at War, it had no public multiplayer beta; it was tested in an internal beta. Infinity Ward did not make a Wii version.

The cast includes Kevin McKidd as Soap MacTavish, Craig Fairbrass as Ghost and Billy Murray as Captain Price, with Barry Pepper, Keith David and Glenn Morshower also confirmed. The rapper 50 Cent voices squad members in Special Ops and multiplayer. Hans Zimmer wrote the main theme and Lorne Balfe wrote the rest of the score. The soundtrack came out on June 1, 2010.

It shipped in four retail versions on PS3 and Xbox 360: Standard, Hardened, Veteran and Prestige. The Hardened Edition adds a steel book case, an art book and a code for Call of Duty Classic. The Prestige Edition adds working night vision goggles and a stand shaped like Soap's head. Two multiplayer map packs followed in 2010, each with five maps, called Stimulus Package and Resurgence Package.

Reviews were very strong (universal acclaim on Metacritic for the console versions). Critics praised the campaign, Spec Ops and multiplayer and criticised the short campaign and the lack of new ideas. The airport level No Russian drew wide controversy, and the game was censored in some international versions; the level was removed from the Russian version.

Activision reported about 4.7 million copies sold in the US and UK in the first 24 hours and about 310 million US dollars in first day sales in those two countries. In 2013 IGN put lifetime sales at 22.7 million. Retrospective reviews rank it among the best in the series, and its Spec Ops mode is often singled out. The campaign was remastered in 2020 for PS4, Xbox One and Windows, without multiplayer or Spec Ops.

Official trailer

Modern Warfare 2 Worldwide Reveal Trailer (Official HD), InfinityWard. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - Full Campaign Walkthrough | PS3 | No Commentary, TrueGamingVault. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

First-person shooter

Engine

IW 4.0 (in-house, Infinity Ward)

Composers

Lorne Balfe (score), Hans Zimmer (main theme)

Designers

Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke

Writers

Jesse Stern

Producers

Mark Rubin

Directors

Jason West

Artist

Richard Kriegler

Developer

Infinity Ward

Publisher

Activision

Platforms

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows (2009-11-10), OS X (Aspyr, 2014-05-20), PS4 and Xbox One as Campaign Remastered (2020, campaign only)

Modes

Single player

Yes

Online multiplayer

Yes

Series

Call of Duty (sixth main entry; sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare; followed by Modern Warfare 3 in 2011)

Release dates

Entries

Platform	Region	Date
PS3, Xbox 360, Windows	worldwide	2009-11-10
OS X	worldwide	2014-05-20
Campaign Remastered, PS4	worldwide	2020-03-31 (Wikipedia gives March 30 in the infobox and March 31 in the text)
Campaign Remastered, Xbox One and Windows	worldwide	2020-04-30
Xbox 360 version made backward compatible on Xbox One	worldwide	2018-08-28
PS3 Stimulus Package DLC	North America	2010-05-04
PS3 Resurgence Package DLC	North America	2010-07-06
PS3 Resurgence Package DLC	Europe and Australia	2010-07-07

Editions

Buy this game

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

2

Silver

10

Bronze

38

Total

51

Points

1350

Online note

51 trophies in the PS3 list. Several depend on Special Ops, for example 21 stars for Blackjack and 69 stars for Star 69; The Price of War needs the campaign finished on Hardened or Veteran.

Grind

• Special Ops star trophies
• Veteran-difficulty mission trophies

• Is That All You Got? Earn all available Trophies for Modern Warfare® 2. Platinum 7.12% of players
• Back in the Saddle Help train the local militia. Bronze 78.37% of players
• Danger Close Get hand picked for Shepherd's elite squad. Bronze 75.12% of players
• Cold Shoulder Infiltrate the snowy mountain side base. Bronze 72.45% of players
• Tag 'em and bag 'em Find Rojas in the Favelas. Bronze 67.42% of players
• Royale with Cheese Defend Burger Town. Bronze 65% of players
• Soap on a Rope Storm the gulag. Bronze 59.51% of players
• Desperate Times Execute the plan to help the Americans. Bronze 57.91% of players
• Whiskey Hotel Take back Whiskey Hotel. Bronze 57.05% of players
• The Pawn Assault Makarov's safe house. Bronze 56.18% of players
• Out of the Frying Pan... Complete the mission in the airplane graveyard. Bronze 55.82% of players
• For the Record Complete the Single Player campaign on any difficulty. Silver 55.29% of players
• The Price of War Complete the single player campaign on Hardened or Veteran Difficulty. Gold 19.65% of players
• First Day of School Complete 'S.S.D.D' and 'Team Player' on Veteran Difficulty. Bronze 23.78% of players
• Black Diamond Complete 'Cliffhanger' on Veteran Difficulty. Bronze 23.16% of players
• Turistas Complete 'Takedown' and 'The Hornet's Nest' on Veteran Difficulty. Silver 18.31% of players
• Red Dawn Complete 'Wolverines!' and 'Exodus' on Veteran Difficulty. Silver 17.72% of players
• Prisoner #627 Complete 'The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday' and 'The Gulag' on Veteran Difficulty. Silver 17.28% of players
• Ends Justify the Means Complete 'Contingency' on Veteran Difficulty Bronze 16.75% of players
• Homecoming Complete 'Of Their Own Accord', 'Second Sun', and 'Whiskey Hotel' on Veteran Difficulty. Silver 16.46% of players
• Queen takes Rook Complete 'Loose Ends' and 'The Enemy of My Enemy' on Veteran Difficulty. Silver 15.86% of players
• Off the Grid Complete 'Just Like Old Times' and 'Endgame' on Veteran Difficulty. Bronze 16.18% of players
• Pit Boss Run The Pit in 'S.S.D.D' and finish with a final time under 30 seconds. Bronze 14.76% of players
• Ghost Plant the C4 in 'Cliffhanger' without alerting or injuring anyone in the blizzard. Bronze 15.28% of players
• Colonel Sanderson Kill 7 chickens in under 10 seconds in 'The Hornet's Nest'. Bronze 22.02% of players
• Gold Star Earn 1 star in Special Ops. Bronze 71.12% of players
• Hotel Bravo Earn 4 stars in Special Ops. Bronze 57.57% of players
• Charlie On Our Six Earn 8 stars in Special Ops. Bronze 50.79% of players
• It Goes to Eleven Earn at least 1 star in 11 different Special Op missions. Bronze 35.05% of players
• Operational Asset Earn all 3 stars in at least 5 different Special Op missions. Bronze 25.77% of players
• Blackjack Earn 21 stars in Special Ops. Bronze 31.28% of players
• Honor Roll Earn at least 1 star in each Special Op mission. Silver 10.62% of players
• Operative Earn all 3 stars in at least 10 different Special Op missions. Silver 18.43% of players
• Specialist Earn 30 stars in Special Ops. Silver 23.78% of players
• Professional Earn all 3 stars in at least 15 different Special Op missions. Silver 13.25% of players
• Star 69 Earn 69 stars in Special Ops. Gold 8.66% of players
• Three-some Kill at least 3 enemies with a single shot from a grenade launcher in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 77.29% of players
• Downed but Not Out Kill 4 enemies in a row while downed in Special Ops. Bronze 16.27% of players
• No Rest For the Wary Knife an enemy without him ever knowing you were there in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 45.83% of players
• I'm the Juggernaut... Kill a Juggernaut in Special Ops. Bronze 38.89% of players
• Desperado Kill 5 enemies in a row using 5 different weapons or attachments in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 38.44% of players
• Ten plus foot-mobiles Kill at least 10 enemies with one Predator missile in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 68.32% of players
• Unnecessary Roughness Use a riot shield to beat down an enemy in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 57.78% of players
• Knock-knock Kill 4 enemies with 4 shots during a slow-mo breach in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 32.85% of players
• Look Ma Two Hands Kill 10 enemies in a row using akimbo weapons in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 29.01% of players
• Some Like it Hot Kill 6 enemies in a row using a thermal weapon in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 63.23% of players
• Two Birds with One Stone Kill 2 enemies with a single bullet in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 79.99% of players
• The Road Less Traveled Collect 22 enemy intel items. Bronze 13.28% of players
• Leave No Stone Unturned Collect 45 enemy intel items. Bronze 10.71% of players
• Drive By Kill 20 enemies in a row while driving a vehicle in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 22.14% of players
• The Harder They Fall Kill 2 rappelling enemies in a row before they land on their feet in Single Player or Special Ops. Bronze 52.11% of players

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 7.3 GB

Update patch16.6 MB

Version 01.14, the only patch Sony hosts.

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID, checked Oct 2026. The game's real history can be longer.

DLC

Two map packs came out for PS3 in 2010, five maps each. Both are still sold on the PS3 store and work online.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Price	Obtainable today
Stimulus Package	2010-05-04	Crash and Overgrown (remakes from Call of Duty 4), plus Bailout, Storm and Salvage, and two mixed game modes.	US$14.99	Yes
Resurgence Package	2010-07-06	Strike and Vacant (remakes from Call of Duty 4), plus Carnival, Trailer Park and Fuel.	US$14.99	Yes
Call of Duty Classic	2009-12-02	HD version of the first Call of Duty, a separate download; a code came in the Hardened and Prestige editions.		No

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Campaign, split-screen Special Ops and online multiplayer all still work.

Online

Online servers runningYes

Plays offlineYes

Online multiplayer still works on PS3, with matches recorded in August 2026.

Services

Service	Status
Online multiplayer (PS3)	running

Reception

Critic scores

Outlet	Score	Scale	Reviews	Platform reviewed
Metacritic (PS3 Metascore)	94	100	67
Metacritic (Xbox 360)	94	100
Metacritic (PC)	86	100
Game Informer	9.75	10		Xbox 360
GameSpot	9	10		Xbox 360
IGN	9.5	10
Famitsu	39	40
Destructoid	9.5	10
GamesRadar	10	10
The Guardian	5	5
The Daily Telegraph	10	10

Awards

Wikipedia lists Best Shooter and Best Multiplayer at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, a GAME Award at the 6th BAFTA Games Awards, Action Game of the Year at the 13th DICE Awards, and GameTrailers Game of the Year 2009, among others.

Sales

Figure
4.7 million units in the US and UK in the first 24 hours; about 310 million USD first day revenue there
About 22.7 million copies as of 2013 (IGN figure)
US November 2009 NPD: about 4.2 million on Xbox 360 and 1.87 million on PS3
Japan first week: 64,000 on PS3
Over 1 billion USD in sales by 2010-01-13

Staff and cast

Studio

Infinity Ward

Publisher

Activision

Director

Jason West

Producer

Mark Rubin

Writer

Jesse Stern

Designers

Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke

Composer

Lorne Balfe; main theme by Hans Zimmer

Artist

Richard Kriegler

Voice cast

Actor	Role
Kevin McKidd	Captain John 'Soap' MacTavish
Craig Fairbrass	Lt Simon 'Ghost' Riley
Billy Murray	Captain Price
50 Cent	squad member voices in Special Ops and multiplayer

Notes for collectors

• A cut level called Roadkill appears in the Hardened and Prestige art book, and an International Space Station level was found in the game code, per the Call of Duty Wiki.
• The Hardened and Prestige discs reportedly carry a different print (green and black MW2 logo) from the Standard disc.
• The Prestige Edition goggles need five AA batteries.
• The airport level No Russian was censored in some international versions and removed from the Russian version. Players can skip it with no penalty.
• After the Xbox 360 version became backward compatible on Xbox One in August 2018, it went from rank 321 to number 8 in US monthly sales.
• Trophy note: Downed but Not Out needs a second player in Spec Ops, so the Platinum needs one too. Split screen likely works but is untested by us. No trophy needs multiplayer.

Credits

Publisher

Activision

Developer

Infinity Ward

Director

Jason West

Released

2009-11-10

Age rating

M

Disc ID

BLUS30377

Region

US

Time to beat

about 6.5 hours

Copies in the shop

• Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) CA$14.99