Black Ops 4 Blackout Beta Extended, Player Count Increased

Game Rant

By Rory Young

Published Sep 17, 2018

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta for the Blackout battle royale mode is being extended two hours and the maximum player count is being raised to 100.

Treyarch announced this morning that the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta for Blackout is being extended for a brief amount of time in order to test a highly-requested change. The already popular battle royale mode will now be open through 12:00 pm PT and will raise the Blackout player count up to one hundred total players. That's a player increase of 25% or 20 total players (12 players on PS4), bringing Blackout's total player count on par with competitive battle royale games.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout beta began last week, with PlayStation 4 pre-orderers garnering access on Monday, September 10. Xbox One and PC players were then able to join the beta on Friday, September 14. The beta was originally scheduled to end at 10:00am PT Monday morning, but has now been extended and will end at noon. It's only a two-hour extension, but those still playing will likely welcome the extra round or few of availability.

Many players are questioning Treyarch's intent by only extending the Blackout beta by a matter of hours, hours which most players will undoubtedly still be at work or school. The extended beta appears to be specifically intended to stress test Treyarch's Blackout servers in a way that the weekend's standard beta couldn't. Raising the player cap up to 100 players just for a few hours will likely push the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 servers to their limit, giving Treyarch plenty of data to analyze. Depending on the outcome, it could mean that Blackout will be pushed to 100 players maximum come launch.

Alternatively, Treyarch and Activision could very well have planned for Blackout to feature a maximum of 100 players standard. Today's beta extension and player increase could simply be a marketing maneuver, igniting a community discussion regarding what Blackout's player count will be at launch. Or whether 100 players maximum is the best option for the mode in the first place.

Whether for testing or marketing reasons, today's adjustments for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout mode will serve as an exclamation point on what's been an exciting and well-received beta. The wait until launch will be all the more unbearable.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 releases on October 12 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.