Call of Duty beta season has become a yearly ritual for gamers, similar to football fans and the National Football League’s opening weeks.
Every late summer/early fall, CoD‘s beta kicks into gear to give gamers a taste of what to expect from the upcoming title in the franchise. Next on deck is Black Ops 6, and players are chomping at the bit to try it out before its full release later this year.
After months of anticipation and speculation, we now know all about the Black Ops 6 beta and have all the information you need.
How to preload Black Ops 6 beta
The Black Ops 6 beta will be automatically included as part of MW3 and Warzone’s Season Five Reloaded update on Aug. 21. But if you don’t have those games already installed, it can also be downloaded as a separate file with early access preload beginning on Aug. 28, which is the same day as the Call of Duty Next presentation.
MW3’s Season Five Reloaded update is set to completely reshape and reorganize the Call of Duty HQ app, where all CoD games are housed. To prepare for BO6, the update will also include the beta, along with a redownload and reorganization of MW3’s files on all platforms. So once you install this update, you should be good to go for the beta’s opening day.
Below you can find all of the estimated download sizes for the beta for each platform, along with each download/preload method.
Estimated download size for Black Ops 6 beta
| Platform | File size with MW3 and Season 5 Reloaded update installed | File size without Call of Duty installed |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | 34 GB | 80 GB |
| PlayStation 4 | 15 GB | 67 GB |
| Xbox Series X|S | 35 GB | 75 GB |
| Xbox One | 17 GB | 52 GB |
| Battle.net | 32 GB | 74 GB |
| Steam | 32 GB | 66 GB |
| Microsoft Store | 29 GB | 68 GB |
Once downloaded, the BO6 early access beta begins on Aug. 30 for those who have preordered the game digitally. The open beta begins on Sept. 6 for all platforms.
The BO6 beta will include a sampling of the full game’s weapons, maps, operators, and modes to help Activision and Treyarch test out balancing and server issues to best prepare for the massive launch less than two months later.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches on all of the above platforms on Oct. 25.
