Call of Duty: Warzone feels like a colder place without Plunder, which used to heat us all with its furious gameplay as you dart around a map in the hunt for cash. Plunder hasn’t been seen throughout 2026, and it’s starting to become one of CoD’s great mysteries.
Traditional Warzone battle royale will always remain the cornerstone for free-to-play Call of Duty. Since its debut, Warzone has also featured a plethora of gripping other playlist options: Resurgence, Iron Trials, and Havoc Royale, to name a few.
But say the word Plunder, and more than a few ears will suddenly perk up.
Why Can’t I Play Plunder in Warzone?
Plunder hasn’t been a playlist option going as far back as 2025 because Raven and Activision have presumably decided to keep the game mode from selection in Warzone for 2026.
It’s actually unbelievable to think that Plunder hasn’t been in Warzone since October/November 2025!
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I did some research, and the last time it was even mentioned in official Warzonen patch notes was October 8, in 2025’s Call of Duty: Warzone Season 06 Patch Notes—did you just shed a tear, too?
This is the last official word we had on the game mode, and it hasn’t been acknowledged since. It became a complete ghost (not that one) once the Black Ops 7 and Warzone integration happened.
Why Was Plunder Removed From Warzone?
It’s never officially been revealed why Raven refuses to bring Plunder back, but a common theory is that it’s connected to the Plunder AFK exploit discovered in July 2025.
In mid-2025, savvy Warzone players who were tired of manually leveling up guns came up with a rather unscrupulous method of obtaining easy XP:
- Join a game of Plunder.
- Go AFK (Away from keyboard/controller).
- Earn easy XP without playing the game.
- Rinse and repeat.
- Make progress without the physical act of making progress.
It seems harmless, but this likely created numerous issues for Raven: Bloated servers, unfair practices, and players earning XP not being incentivized to buy bundles where they can earn guns without having to earn them, and so forth.
Raven started banning players for supposedly using the exploit, but this created a myriad of issues, particularly players not using the exploit getting banned and being unable to appeal the ban.
Ultimately, it’s believed the mode has been permanently removed because it avoids the issue of dealing with the exploit. Again, this is speculation, but the facts would seemingly align with one another.
When is Plunder Coming Back To Warzone?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a timeline for Plunder’s return to Warzone in 2026, but there’s optimism in the CoD community that Plunder is being saved for the next generation of Call of Duty and Warzone going into 2027.
Black Ops 7’s time in the sun will wrap up toward the end of 2026. Leaks suggest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will release in October 2026.
This will kickstart the next phase of Warzone, and there’s a belief (borderline blind optimism) that Plunder will make a heroic return for MW4/Warzone.
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Only time will tell if this happens. It could arrive sooner, or we literally might never have a chance to play Plunder ever again.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you enjoy Plunder? Where does it rank compared to the Warzone playlist modes we see now? Share your thoughts and more through the Insider Gaming Discord.
For more CoD news, check out the incredible attack on gamers by the Call of Duty movie director, calling war games ‘Pathetic’ and that playing them is ‘Weak.’
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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