When is Modern Warfare 3 Season 1? First major update brings new weapons, maps, more

Brad Norton
Modern Warfare 3 cinematic

Although Modern Warfare 3 is only just coming into the spotlight, avid CoD players are already eager to learn more about what comes next. A year of drip-fed content all kicks off with the jam-packed Season 1 update. Here’s what you need to know.

After months of gameplay snippets and lengthy explainer blog posts, Modern Warfare 3 is finally in focus. And while CoD’s 2023 release hasn’t made a great first impression with its campaign, fans are still set to clock countless hours across Zombies and multiplayer in the coming months.

To keep these players satiated over the long run, the launch is only the beginning. Every few weeks marks the arrival of a new seasonal update, and the cycle is all set to begin anew when Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 goes live shortly.

So, before it all gets underway and the first significant content drop arrives, here’s the rundown of all you need to know.

Contents:

Modern Warfare 3 art
Season 1 often marks the biggest content drop of the year, and MW3’s update looks to be no different.

Is there a Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 release date?

CharlieIntel confirmed that Season 1 of Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone starts on December 6

What’s in Modern Warfare 3 Season 1? New content on the way

While the launch of Modern Warfare 3 brings dozens of new weapons, maps, Operators, and plenty more to the mix, the content pipeline is just beginning. With the first seasonal update comes the first big batch of gameplay tweaks, plenty of new cosmetics, and, of course, some surprises as well.

Expected as part of the Season 1 update are all the usual goodies like a Battle Pass, Operator bundles, a handful of weapons, some new maps, and plenty more in between.

Sledgehammer Games fans gave fans a peek behind the curtain of what’s to come in a blog post.

Leaked weapons for Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 update

Take this early intel with a grain of salt until confirmed by Activision, but it appears players can expect five new weapons throughout Season 1. Three of them will allegedly be made available on day one, while the rest will most likely be featured in the mid-season (Reloaded) update.

The leaked Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 weapons are as follows:

https://twitter.com/el_bobberto/status/1721227284860879206

Warzone integrates with Modern Warfare 3: New Urzikstan map arrives

Town in Urzikstan MW3 Warzone
Warzone players will be dropping into a whole new map following the Season 1 update.

With the launch of Season 1 in Modern Warfare 3 comes the highly-anticipated revamp of Warzone. Bringing all of the 2023 title’s overhauled movement mechanics to the mix, along with a whole new arsenal of weapons, it’s set to redefine the CoD Battle Royale experience for another year.

Naturally, with this big revamp also comes another big map. Al Mazrah is set to be replaced by Urzikstan, a sprawling map we got our first look at during the CoD Next event a few weeks ago.

New Multiplayer maps

Season 1 introduces two new 6v6 multiplayer maps at launch and a third as part of the mid-season update.

Meat

Greece

Rio (Season 1 Reloaded)

Gunfight makes triumphant return

The fan-favorite 2v2 game mode Gunfight is back in Season 1. Modern Warfare 2 also brought back the mode, and after ironing out a few wrinkles, community members praised the final product.

Sledgehammer Games confirmed on Reddit: “There will be 6 2v2 maps in rotation in Season 1 including four Carry-Forward maps from MWII and a brand-new map, Training Facility, which is available at Season 1 launch. Shipment will also return.”

That’s everything we know about MW3 Season 1. For more, check out the rest of our MW3 coverage.