Warzone is in a bad spot right now. We’re a long way since the heyday of 2020 when Verdansk was on everyone’s minds, and what remains today is a shell of what was once the most popular battle royale game in the business. The competitive scene is in bits, pro players have waited months for payments, and cheaters are harassing the global community with increasing abandon.
But fear not – in the recent patch notes published ahead of Warzone Season 02, Activision’s teams revealed that you now have the correct number of rocks to throw in the Gulag.
Warzone in Tatters
Last week, I covered the news that many Warzone pro players still chase hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments owed by Activision and Co.
Following the World Series of Warzone last year, players from the top down failed to secure their winnings. The state of play for Warzone esports was already rough enough, but this revelation extinguished any hope fans had for a resurgence of sorts in the coming months.
On social and streaming platforms, sentiments are at an all-time low.
On Twitch, the game’s peak of 1.6 million viewers (in April 2021) seems like little more than a fever dream now. The average peak viewer count in the last seven days was around 24,000 users at the time of writing. That could be a symptom of the wider comedown of the battle royale genre, though – other games aren’t faring much better:
- PUBG – 12,800 avg
- Apex Legends – 16,100 avg
Only Fortnite stays strong, boasting a 65,800 average peak viewer count over the last seven days – but given the game’s rampant success in recent years, that’s hardly a surprise.
The recent patch notes for Warzone’s Season 02 update revealed plenty of bug fixes and tweaks, but one that stood out and drew some jibes on social media read:
Fixed an issue where players only had one Gulag Rock instead of five in the Gulag.
This prompted many users to throw jabs at Activision’s prioritisation matrix, suggesting that this fix is but a grain of sand amid a beach of problems.
In a post on Twitter (X), CouRage suggested what needs to be done to revive Warzone:
It’s so sad to see the state of Warzone. Call of Duty is one of the mismanaged IPs on the planet. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Too many egos. Too much greed from Activision. Pull the plug. Reset from Warzone 1.0 and let it be it’s own standalone experience. Only additive…
In a spread of comments echoing the general sentiment, content creators across the net expressed their concerns:
- ‘Warzone has gotta be one of the biggest embarrassments ever right now…’ – Timmy2Cans
- ‘The mismanagement of Warzone will go down as one of gaming’s biggest blunders when all is said and done.’ – Loochy
- ‘Perhaps the magic of Warzone is just gone and we all have grown tired of playing the game.’ – DougDagnabbit
What do you think about the state of Warzone in 2025? Are you still playing, or have you long since moved on? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that we almost had Halo maps in COD
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