How and when to preload ‘Warzone 2’ Plus file size on Xbox, PlayStation and PC

war zone 2 is almost here, with the start of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Season 1, the addition of the new DMZ mode and a plethora of new content to dive into.

The new free game Call of Duty Battle Royale comes with the new Al Mazrah map, an all-new Battle Pass, and overhauled gameplay systems, including 2v2 Gulag matches, all-new Buy Stations, and a collapsing circle that can split into two or three smaller circles.

Preload for war zone 2 has now started on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC via Battle.net and Steam. I tested preloading and ran into a few issues that I’m currently working on with Activision. Basically, head to your platform’s storefront and search War zone 2. When it appears, you should be able to just hit the preload button and begin installing.

However, the issues I encountered include:

• On Steam when I press preload it just launches Modern Warfare II This may mean that the game is already preloaded. I am not sure!
• On PlayStation 5, when I search war zone 2 it does not appear. Modern Warfare II appears, as do some packs for the original war zone, But no War zone 2.

However, you can go to this link which will take you to war zone 2 website where you can choose your platform of choice and add the game to your library (theoretically it should work!). For example, this link takes me directly to the PlayStation version of the game and gives me the option to add to my library.

When I followed the steps in this link, I discovered that on PlayStation, war zone 2 looks like Modern Warfare II There is no separate game, icon or page for this. I was able to preload, but can’t tell if it preloads the entirety Modern Warfare II game (which I don’t own on PlayStation!) or simply War zone. The file size is 38.6 GB though. More on that in a second.

Speaking of file sizes, how much space does Warzone 2 require?

I’m trying to get confirmation of the download size from Activision, but right now I’m seeing conflicting reports. For example, many outlets report that war zone 2 will take 115GB on Xbox and PlayStation, but when I preloaded the game on my Xbox Series X, this is the screen I get when I go to manage the game:

As you can see I show here war zone 2 occupying a paltry 6.2 GB. The total footprint of Modern Warfare II campaign, Co-Op, Multiplayer and Warzone 2 is less than 50 GB.

During this time I was able to see the preload size on Battle.net. I have Modern Warfare II installed on Steam and on the war zone 2 page it says you need 125 GB of space on your machine to install the game. However, in Battle.net preloading only requires 17.4 GB:

Whether war zone 2 is only 6.2 GB on Xbox and 17.4 GB on Battle.net I can’t imagine it being 38.6 GB on PlayStation, which suggests to me that there is a game “of base” which includes files for both Modern Warfare II and war zone 2, and this is also installed on my PlayStation 5 (where I really don’t have much space! I’m just doing this for science!)

It’s possible this is just the initial preload size, and there’s another big update on the way that will require a lot more hard drive space. I asked for clarification and will update this post when I know more.

All this to say that we have limited information at this time, but the actual preload isn’t that significant as far as I can tell, ranging from 6.2 GB on Xbox for 17.4 GB on PC and 38.6 GB on PlayStationalthough it’s probably smaller if you already have Modern Warfare II installed.

Oh, and right now my Steam install of Modern Warfare II—presumably with war zone 2 preloaded—is 55.45 GB. I believe it was around 30 GB at launch. It is therefore possible that on Steam the war zone 2 The update was around 25GB, but I’m not entirely sure if updates between launch and now might impact the base install size.

Mysteries abound! See you in the Warzone this Wednesday! If everything goes according to plan and doesn’t constantly crush us, that’s good!