Will Call of Duty Warzone kill Blackout?

With Call of Duty Warzone supposedly just around the corner, it begs the question whether CoD’s latest battle royale game will kill off its current one, Black Ops 4’s Blackout.

While it hasn’t been officially confirmed, Warzone is expected to release on Tuesday, March 10. It has been a strange build up to the battle royale mode which has been rumored ever since Modern Warfare came out.

As it stands however, Blackout, the battle royale mode for Black Ops 4, is Call of Duty’s only offering of the popular genre. The introduction of Warzone will undoubtedly take some of the remaining players.

Infinity Ward/Treyarch

Will Warzone see the end of Blackout? Only time will tell…

The question isn’t so much will Warzone have a negative effect on the Blackout player count, but will it do so to the extent that it will essentially kill the mode off. That is hard to tell right now.

The end of Blackout on PC?

On PC things are a little clearer as the player count is already dwindling to levels where lobbies can’t fill up. PC players will have grown accustomed to 10 to 15-minute waits only to have the game start with 30 or so players.

• Read More: Modern Warfare Warzone leak claims to reveal progression, modes, armor

That isn’t sustainable and these numbers will almost certainly see the mode quintessentially die when Warzone does arrive. Perhaps the only resolution is for Treyarch to limit the available modes to just standard duos and quads.

PS4 and Xbox looking healthier

In comparison to the PC, the console versions of Blackout are looking a lot stronger. Waiting times have increased but generally lobbies do fill up.

Blackout’s other mode, Alcatraz, is also looking good. It may only have a maximum of 40 players but lobbies are frequent and rarely fall short of the maximum player count.

Warzone to become CoD’s battle royale mainstay

There are rumors that Call of Duty Warzone is here to stay. It will apparently release as a standalone game which will be expanded upon even through the next Call of Duty games.

• Read More: How will Modern Warfare’s Warzone compare to Black Ops 4’s Blackout?

When and if this does happen, then Blackout may be on borrowed time. Blackout dying on the PC only seems a matter of time but console could be saved with a free-to-play version or cross-platform being added between PS4 and Xbox One.