Top 10 Worst Call of Duty Games of All Time

CoD 3

This game, although nowhere near the worst, suffered from the fate of feeling unfinished. Treyarch's first entry into Call of Duty, everything about this game feels like an open beta, from clunky graphics and gameplay to poorly balanced gunplay.

There's no doubt it was still a fun game, but the level of unpolished ensures that Call of Duty 3 makes it (just) onto the list of the worst Call of Duty games.

CoD Modern Warfare 3

From death streaks, to extremely unbalanced and satisfying multiplayer maps, and a lacklustre conclusion to the campaign trilogy, this game was initially fun, and then very annoying.

Although many gamers remember the fun times they had with friends, this game was plagued with bad choices, especially the death streaks which rewarded players for being bad, making this one of the worst CODs around.

CoD (Original)

Although it must be credited with being the original, and the reason for the franchise, it's undeniable that compared to many modern COD titles, this game falls short.

Good for its age, unsurprisingly the graphics are now extremely outdated, and overall the game offers a pretty limited multiplayer and campaign compared to newer titles. 

CoD Black Ops 3

With both some of the easiest and best zombies maps, this game certainly had some saving graces in its Zombies, however that is not enough to save it from just dipping into this list.

If you'd like to see more on COD Zombies, check out our articles on the easiest Zombies maps, and the best custom Zombies maps in Black Ops 3.  

It also felt more like a stop-gap entry between the main Black Ops story, with a weak campaign and struggling gameplay. Check out our article on the order of COD games timeline to get a sense of where it falls in the Black Ops story.

CoD Advanced Warfare

Jetpacks, exo suits, supply drops, and more, there were plenty of new features in this game, and plenty of reasons gamers would rather forget this title.

Although some innovation was attempted, much of it fell flat, with the exo suits providing a cheesy way of moving around the map, removing player skill, whilst jetpacks were buggy at launch and anti-COD at best.

Campaign, multiplayer, and many other core elements were not downright dreadful, but that awful middle ground of just boring and uninspired. Looking back, this is one COD title most gamers have probably already forgotten.

CoD WW2

Attempting to return the Call of Duty franchise to World War 2, this game had excellent graphics. And that's about it. The campaign was mediocre at best, and quickly gained a reputation as too hand-holding, with seemingly more cutscenes than actual gameplay.

Multiplayer was stable and had some decent maps, but overall was pretty disappointing and bland. Gun customization was also not great, although the Zombies story wasn't the worst COD has ever seen.

CoD Black Ops Cold War

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War was released just after the hit Modern Warfare 2019 (check out our article on the best COD games of all time for more on that), and with the hype of Warzone was basically forgotten by the developers and the players.

Although it did include some of the all-time classic Call of Duty maps, the campaign was beyond boring, and the overall game mechanics just lacked that awesome, smooth Call of Duty feel.

CoD Vanguard

This game disappointed the fans so much that it is one of Call of Duty's biggest financial failures, being straight-up rejected by most of the player base.

With a half-baked and uncompleted zombies mode, an uninteresting and very forgettable campaign with stupid missions, and a multiplayer with nothing special, Vanguard was dropped almost as quickly as it was released. 

CoD Ghosts

Essentially a poorly-reskinned old-school Modern Warfare game severely lacking in content, Ghosts was possibly the most hated Call of Duty game for quite some time.

Compared to the previous release of Black Ops 2, Ghosts was a shadow of what Call of Duty should be. The main issue was the limited and extremely mundane campaign, although many other aspects such as the graphics, multiplayer map selection, and gun customization also felt extremely unpolished.

CoD Infinite Warfare

Despite some fun celebrity cameos - check our article on the best celebrity crossovers in COD for more on that, this game truly was awful. 

After that, things didn't get much better. Not only did it have the dreaded jetpacks that fundamentally changed COD movement for the worse, but overall the multiplayer and theme of the game was just not Call of Duty.

The campaign was not necessarily the worst COD has ever seen, however the multiplayer was one of the dullest ones in COD history, and for many players that is enough to completely kill their enjoyment of the game.