Criticism of Call of Duty: Warzone, or any online multiplayer game for that matter, is common. There are always players who take issue with balance or progression as the developers at Raven Software make adjustments or add new content. Often, this criticism is a matter of preference or wishful thinking. However, the latest issue many Call of Duty: Warzone players are struggling with is much more serious, as a recent patch appears to have caused significant frame rate issues in the battle royale game.
A thread on the Call of Duty: Warzone subreddit is drawing some attention to a problem with the game's menus. The problem seems to only be affecting a minority of players, judging by the thread's activity. However, some of those impacted are saying that the issue is so serious that Call of Duty: Warzone has become unplayable. One player even goes so far as saying that their high-FPS performance has dropped to as low as 13 FPS.
The cause of this issue has been laid at the feet of Call of Duty: Warzone's most recent patch. The patch was dropped on Thursday, September 23, and focused on adjustments to the battle royale's Iron Trials '84 game mode, though it also had several balance changes for weapons. What it didn't include, at least according to the patch notes, is any changes to Call of Duty: Warzone's menus. It's more than possible that changes were made and left out of the notes, however.
The game seems less optimized in the menus now again, what did i miss in a week of not playing? from CODWarzone
Without more specific detail on what Raven Software has changed, it's impossible to guess what's caused the lagging issues in Call of Duty: Warzone's menus. And without that, there's no real way for players to work around the issue or try and solve it on their own. All players can do is hope Raven is aware of the issue and that it'll correct it in time.
That said, Raven has yet to acknowledge that some players are experiencing frame rate issues in Call of Duty: Warzone's menus yet, and as such hasn't confirmed whether a fix is in the works or not. That will hopefully change in a matter of time, but for now it means players experiencing the issue are stuck with a potentially unplayable game.
It's the unfortunate nature of games, and online multiplayer games specifically, that things can go wrong unintentionally. Call of Duty: Warzone is a massive, complex game, technically speaking. Even a small change can have dramatic consequences in a completely unforeseen way. Further, robust testing can miss a bug that hits a fraction of Call of Duty: Warzone's millions of players. What matters is how quickly Raven is able to catch this feedback and respond, and hopefully, a response comes soon.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.