Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has already proved to be quite successful. In the opening weekend, the game made $500 million and the series' player counts and the number of hours played also increased year over year. But the team behind the game still wants to expand the playerbase and the new free trial could be the key to that.

Today, publisher Activision and developer Treyarch announced that they will be hosting a free trial of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout battle royale mode. Beginning on Thursday, January 17 and ending on Thursday, January 24, players will have a week to enjoy the game's battle royale gameplay without paying to buy the game in full. Free players will have access to all of the same content as paid Blackout players and this includes iconic characters from the series' history, as well as the various locations that make up the Blackout map, plus weapons and gear.

The two companies have also released a brand new trailer in order to celebrate the Blackout free trial. It celebrates the fast-paced action that paid players have been enjoying to this point, including explosive vehicle takedowns, impressive wingsuit maneuvers, and a couple of aerial stunts too. The trailer doesn't show off some of the game's wonky technical issues, such as a recent bug that put every player in the final circle, but hopefully, such problems will be ironed out before Thursday.

The official announcement of the Blackout free trial week comes not long after games industry analyst Michael Pachter suggested that Blackout could go free to play (full time) before the next Call of Duty game launches. Activision and Treyarch may well be using this Blackout free trial week as a way of testing the waters. The companies can figure out whether existing players also jump back into the game as a result of the free trial and how many more people are willing to play Blackout when accessing the game mode is free of charge.

Looking at the bigger picture, this also gives Activision a way of increasing its active player counts. The publisher has been encouraging its development teams to become more profitable as these active player counts have been dropping. Activision games have faced greater competition from rivals too, which is putting a dent into those figures. It makes considerable sense that it would try and give one of the biggest game modes in its biggest series a bit of a boost with a free trial.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.