Top 10 Call of Duty Games of the Decade 2010's

December 29, 2019 at 4:53pm
By Jason Stettner

The decade is wrapping up, the 2010’s are almost behind us. One franchise has consistently released titles throughout that period of time, so here are the best Call of Duty games of the decade. This is a ranked ordering for the list, based on how time has treated them as many are still quality titles to today.

I didn’t include Call of Duty Mobile as that’s sort of a mix of the titles, thought that was worth mentioning as it’s a great entry in the series. The games have honestly changed, perhaps even more so right towards the end with a new engine. New modes have come, the first person shooter has evolved and there have been many distinct variations for this series over the years.

#10: Black Ops 4

This one could have been so much more with a campaign, but it did provide a really different sort of experience focusing on the multiplayer. It presented Blackout which was the franchise’s take on battle royale, and I think that really helped round out the experience. This also contained the next step in zombies, as well as operator based multiplayer.

#9: Ghosts

I really liked this one when it came out, mostly because it was a bit different. Over time I’ve seen some more flaws, but you have to admit that the story was interesting here. There are few times where it’s doom and gloom for the homeland of Americans, and it was a neat perspective to see. The dog was cool to have around, and the story had strong moments to it. The multiplayer was also fine at times, and I liked how unique Extinction was as it was entirely different from typical zombies.

#8: Infinite Warfare

Taking the series into space and further into the future was a bit of an odd choice. I really didn’t like this one that much, but I do appreciate the rounded out content they had here. The zombies was different, the multiplayer took advantage of new movement and the story did have some unique choice options for doing extra which was new.

#7: Modern Warfare Remastered

I played a lot more of this than Infinite Warfare since they were essentially bundled together. This brought back what’s possibly the release in the franchise and really improved the visuals. It was excellent to revisit this, along with the multiplayer.

I won’t place it too high as it relies on an existing property, but the effort here to revamp things is definitely worth noting. You might be making a comparison to the exclusion of CoD: Mobile. I make the note that Mobile was just ported content mashed together whereas this was actually an enhanced package.

#6: Black Ops 2

This was a fine evolution to the first title, while also being largely the same. It went into the future which was interesting, but still wasn’t too wildly different. The campaign was alright, leaning heavily on what came before. The multiplayer was alright, and I think the zombies was fresh yet perhaps not quite as good. That is, at least with its original zombies content.

#5: Advanced Warfare

A distinct villain, a not too far into the future situation and a well rounded package. The multiplayer was definitely different, I thought the campaign was interesting to work through and the zombies was generally well done. There’s quite a bit to it, it doesn’t necessarily wildly change things but it was different enough.

#4: Modern Warfare 3

I really liked this one, it isn’t as great as the other Modern Warfare titles but wrapped everything up nicely in terms of the narrative and was stacked with content. The campaign was lengthy, emotional and just very large in scale. The multiplayer was a different sort of setup refining elements of play and providing maps with less rooming for hiding. There was survival as a mode, and so much DLC content which was great for keeping players engaged.

#3: WWII

Perhaps higher than others would place it, but this was a step towards getting me to care about the franchise again. It went back to basics with a great campaign, the multiplayer was excellent and the zombies was fun as well. It did some new things, brought back a historical style campaign with a great sense of scale and refined elements of play. The War mode was great, and I liked what they did with this one.

#2: Black Ops

This spawned a highly successful side series within Call of Duty and it brought an incredible campaign into play. It built off of World at War while really being nothing like it. The play was gritty, the multiplayer brought some entirely new aspects of play and the zombies was remarkable. They had some fun game modes for multiplayer that weren’t traditional, and the zombies refinement was perfect. The campaign was also just superb, so many memorable characters and moments.

#1: Modern Warfare

I think they did an amazing job with this reboot. It was respectful of this series within the franchise, while taking the series to new heights. The campaign was shocking, large in scale and had meaningful characters.

The multiplayer was far different than anything else that had come before. It features large scale environments for conflict, is constantly updated and also has many fun modes in rotation as well. The spec ops is expansive in scale and goals, it comes all comes together for a great package that will take this series boldly into the next decade.

Those are the top 10 Call of Duty games of the 2010’s featuring a wide range of titles, perhaps some surprises as well. Hopefully a good variety, with some unexpected placements throughout this listing. Check out another selection of ten games below, or our awards hub to see what took home the top prizes from the site for this past year.

Read About the 10 Best Games of 2019
View our Game Awards 2019