There has been a demand for a ranked play mode in Call of Duty since 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, where it was noticeably absent. Many hoped that it would be included in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War but it was once again nowhere to be seen. Players have good news, though, as a member of developer Treyarch has confirmed that it will happen in the future.
While there had been rumors and leaks concerning a ranked play mode coming to the game in the past (one prominent leaker even claimed as such earlier this month), community manager Josh 'Foxhound' Torres officially acknowledged it when answering a question on Reddit.
Unfortunately, Torres added that he couldn't provide a timetable of when the mode will become available in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which very much suggests that it certainly won't be happening any time soon.
Currently, the game offers skill-based matchmaking, which means players will be placed into online matches against other players of a similar skill-level. While this does help keep things fair, especially for newcomers who would find themselves being quickly destroyed by more experienced players, there has been a huge demand for a ranked play mode, particularly by competitive players.
In previous titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (which featured something called League Play), ranked mode instead divided players into different divisions. By winning games and earning points, players could progress from the starting Bronze division to higher ones, whereas losing games would knock players down. So, even if a player managed to reach the Gold division, a string of losses would bump them back to Silver.
The Call of Duty games have usually primarily been designed for casual players more than the competitive ones, but the latter clearly still form a large part of the audience. Nothing best demonstrates this than the existence of the official Call of Duty League, though it was only founded and had its inaugural season last year in 2020.
Call of Duty players do have plenty to keep them occupied for the time being, between Modern Warfare, Warzone, and Black Ops Cold War, with Activision and its studios regularly providing updates. The question is whether the inclusion of ranked play will be a priority, especially as the games seem to frequently require patches and updates to fix various issues, alongside regular new content. Most recently, Treyarch teased a new map for Black Ops Cold War's Zombie mode, which will likely arrive on January 15.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.