Call of Duty: Warzone is free to download, but the install is one of the biggest you can put on your drive these days, and on old consoles you can no longer get the game at all. We’ll go through where to download the game on PC and console, how to install it step by step, how much space it really takes and, above all, how to shrink it when you’re running out of storage.
Where to download Warzone on PC
Activision’s official guide lists two ways on PC, and both are free:
- Battle.net. Install Blizzard’s desktop app, log in, find Call of Duty: Warzone under All Games and click Install.
- Steam. Launch Steam, log in, open your Library, find Call of Duty: Warzone and click Install.
There’s also a third option, though it looks different: in the Microsoft Store on Windows you’ll find the shared Call of Duty app, which handles Modern Warfare 4, Black Ops 7 and Warzone all at once. You don’t need a PC Game Pass subscription to play Warzone. Microsoft states this explicitly on the game’s page; a membership is only required for the other online modes of the paid titles.
Consoles: what Warzone still runs on
The game runs without restrictions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. For the previous generation the situation is different and has a fixed date:
| When | What happened or will happen on PS4 and Xbox One |
|---|---|
| 4 June 2026 | The game was removed from digital stores and can no longer be newly downloaded |
| 25 June 2026 | The in-game store shut down |
| End of Black Ops 7 Season 06 | The game will no longer be playable on these consoles |
There’s one exception: anyone who has Warzone in their console library can still install it from there and play until the end of Season 06. A fresh download for new players isn’t possible, though. Support ends for good with the launch of Modern Warfare 4 Season 1.
Step-by-step install on console
Before you start, install any available system updates. Activision recommends this as the first step, and it saves you an hour of figuring out why the install keeps failing.
- PlayStation 5. On the home screen, open Game Library in the Games section, find Call of Duty: Warzone under Your Collection and select Download. The rest happens on its own.
- Xbox Series X|S. Go to My games & apps, select See all, then Full library and All owned games. Find Call of Duty: Warzone and choose Install all.
How much space it takes
On PC, the numbers from two official sources don’t match: Activision support lists an SSD with 116 GB of free space, while Steam’s store page says 125 GB. So plan for a range of 116 to 125 GB plus extra headroom, because mandatory updates need space that isn’t included in either number. For consoles there’s no official figure for Warzone on its own; you’ll only see the size in the store on your specific console. The numbers floating around the internet aren’t backed by anything official.
The size also changes over time, and Activision itself attributes this to three things. First, after the big launch updates, downloads get smaller and existing files take up less space. Second, Warzone is no longer part of the default download of the yearly titles, so you install it separately and don’t have to take the whole package. And third, less-used content is moved to a streaming cache: it doesn’t sit on your drive, it just occasionally shows up briefly in lower quality before it finishes loading.
How to shrink the install
This is the part most people come here for. Warzone has its own file management right in the game, and Activision explicitly points to it. Deleting files through the console’s storage manager or through the store isn’t recommended, because the game then behaves unpredictably.
Uninstalling what you don’t play
The process is the same on PC and console:
- Launch Call of Duty.
- Open the menu and choose Manage Files.
- Select Manage Files again.
- Click the tile for the content you want to deal with and choose Manage Files, Uninstall or Install.
The tiles match what you actually have installed: individual games and the modes inside them. If you only care about battle royale, you can remove the campaign and co-op modes of the paid title here and add them back later without redownloading everything from scratch.
Streamed content quality
The advice about a “high-res texture pack” you’ll find in older guides no longer applies. The setting is called On-Demand High-Quality Streaming, and you’ll find it in the Manage Files menu under Graphics. There are two options: Optimized keeps high image quality at the cost of more downloaded data, while Minimal lowers the quality and saves data. For a slow connection or a data cap, Minimal is the more sensible choice.
Choose your content right at install
The easiest approach is not to download what you don’t want in the first place. Each platform does it a little differently:
- PlayStation 5: choose Install Options, uncheck Select All and pick only the content you want.
- Xbox: select Choose what to install and check the specific parts.
- Battle.net: after clicking Install, confirm the options and then uncheck the content that shouldn’t be downloaded.
- Steam: click the gear icon, go to Properties and choose what to install on the DLC tab.
Activision account and linking platforms
You can’t play online without an Activision account; the game requires one from everyone. Signing up asks for a username, email, password and region, and the account may also need a phone number. You can create it right in the game or beforehand on the website.
You can link PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, Blizzard, Nintendo and Ubisoft to it, one account per platform provider. What matters is what you get out of it: progress is saved to your Activision account, not your platform account. So when you move from an old PlayStation to a PS5 or to PC, all your progress and the content bought with COD Points comes with you, which is exactly what anyone who now has to leave an old console needs. Just watch out for one thing: once you link a platform to a different Activision account, your progress won’t carry over.
Unspent COD Points and content bought directly on a console stay within the same console family, so you can’t transfer them from PlayStation to Xbox.
FAQ
From Battle.net or Steam, both for free. On Windows there’s also the shared Call of Duty app in the Microsoft Store, which handles Warzone together with the paid titles.
On PC, plan for 116 to 125 GB depending on whether you go by Activision support or Steam, plus headroom for updates. No official figure has been published for consoles.
In the game, open the menu, choose Manage Files and use the tiles to uninstall modes you don’t play. Then, in the Graphics section, switch On-Demand High-Quality Streaming to Minimal. Deleting through the console’s storage manager isn’t recommended.
Not as a new download. The game was removed from the PS4 and Xbox One stores on 4 June 2026. Anyone who has it in their library can install it and play until the end of Black Ops 7 Season 06.
Yes, online play requires one. You link your platforms to it, and that way your progress and purchased content carry over to another console or to PC.
Information verified as of 3 September 2026. Whether your PC can run the game is covered in our article on system requirements, what costs money in the game in our piece on whether Warzone is free, and who to play with after installing in our community article. The rest of the guides are in the Warzone section.