Sony puts out a monthly list of the most downloaded games on the PlayStation Store, and the October 2026 edition landed on November 4. Modern Warfare 4 is first on PS5 in both regional charts Sony publishes, the US and Canada list and the EU list. For a game that launched on October 23 and had eight days on the board, that is the strongest official signal yet about where the player base went.
Confirmed. The chart position comes straight from Sony's own PlayStation Store post dated November 4, 2026, which lists Modern Warfare 4 first on PS5 for both the US and Canada and the EU. Treat it as exactly what it is: an official ranking of downloads for one month on one platform family. It is not a player count, and Activision has still published no player figures of its own.
What Sony actually published
- Number one on PS5, both regions. Modern Warfare 4 tops the PS5 download chart for the US and Canada and for the EU.
- Warzone is right behind it. Call of Duty: Warzone is second on the US and Canada free-to-play chart and third on the EU one, ahead of its full Modern Warfare 4 integration.
- No MW4 on the PS4 chart. The PS4 list is all back catalog, which matches a game that never shipped on last-generation hardware.
- Upgrades are excluded. Sony's own footnote says the PS5 listings do not count game upgrades, so Vault Edition upgrade traffic is not in that number.
Why Hardcore SnD cares
Nobody gets better at one-life Search in an empty playlist. Hardcore modes are the thin end of every Call of Duty population, and in a launch window the question that matters is not how many copies moved but which platform has enough bodies to keep a Hardcore Search queue short at the hours you actually play. Sony just answered part of that in public.
- Recruiting. If you are building a roster or a regular six, PS5 is the pool with the most hands in it this month. Plan your crossplay settings and your scrim pool around that, not around vibes.
- Queue health. A deeper platform pool means Hardcore Search and the smaller playlists stay alive longer into the season, which is where camo grinds and bad habits usually go to die.
- Lobby composition. A console-weighted population shapes who you meet. Expect controller-heavy rooms and plan your gunfights and your audio setup for that, not for a PC-dominant lobby.
- Season 1 timing. Season 1 lands November 6 with new maps and modes. A population already parked on PS5 is the one that decides how fast those new Search rotations fill.
What a download chart does not tell you
This is a rank, not a headcount. Sony publishes the order of the most downloaded titles, not how many people downloaded them, and it does not publish concurrent players either. Being first in October says Modern Warfare 4 outdrew everything else on PS5 that month. It says nothing about how many of those installs are still booting the game in week three, and nothing at all about any other platform. Activision has published no official player figures for Modern Warfare 4, so concurrent-player comparisons you see against earlier Call of Duty launches come from third-party trackers and remain reported, not confirmed.
A chart position tells you where the crowd is. It does not tell you whether the crowd is still playing.
What to watch
Two things would turn this from a chart placement into something you can plan a season around. The first is any official player or engagement figure from Activision, which it has withheld through launch. The second is the November download chart, which will cover a full month plus Season 1 and will show whether Modern Warfare 4 holds the top of the PS5 list once the launch rush is over. Until then, treat PS5 as the safest bet for a full Hardcore Search lobby and keep your own queue times as the real measurement.