If Verdansk doesn’t successfully bring back players who dropped Warzone, the battle royale’s future is reportedly in jeopardy.

Warzone experienced the most significant player count decrease dating back two years in December. The battle royale lost over 102,000 players or 32.6% of its player base on Steam, and streamers blamed the mass exodus on cheating and performance issues.

Raven Software responded in Season 2 by pushing back the release of new content to make quality-of-life changes and get the game back in a better state. Players believed the sacrifice would be worth it because a leak revealed that Warzone’s original iconic map, Verdansk, is returning in Season 3.

However, that anticipation turned sour when Season 3 was delayed. Activision wants to ensure the map’s success, and the latest leak provides more insight into why that’s the case.

Warzone’s fate reportedly hangs in the balance

Activision

Call of Duty leaker TheGhostOfHope revealed that Warzone 3 will not be in CoD 2026 if Verdansk “fails to retain current/returning players.”

Every series entry since 2020 has released an iteration of Warzone, meaning CoD 2026 could be the first title to end that five-year run.

This would explain why Season 3 was delayed by two weeks, and Activision alluded to how important this upcoming update is in its official statement.

“Season 03 is a big moment for Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops 6, and we’re taking the time to deliver a great experience starting on April 3.”

Even when Verdansk does launch, there is no guarantee that the map is enough to bring back and retain players. Streaming star TimTheTatman revealed that he doesn’t plan on switching back to Call of Duty once Verdansk returns because of how much he is enjoying Marvel Rivals.

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All OG Warzone guns & items returning with Verdansk

It also remains to be seen how many players will remain when the map finally goes live. On Steam, Call of Duty had an average player count of 54,575 in February, the lowest since the site started tracking data in October 2022.