MW3 Season 1: Release Date, Maps, and Early Patch Notes

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is finally here, but the game’s first Season has yet to start. We’re still in the transitional period between MW2 and MW3, so things like the MW3 Battle Pass aren’t live right now.

Still, Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 is set to kick off soon after the final Season of MW2 wraps up. The base Modern Warfare 3 game already comes with every single classic Modern Warfare 2 map remastered and a huge slate of new weapons and equipment, but there’s even more coming when Season 1 launches in a few weeks.

Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 Start Date

The first Season of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will begin on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, on all platforms. When sharing the impressive engagement stats from MW3’s launch window, Sledgehammer Games shared the Season 1 start date to show players that even more content is on the way.

In the meantime, Modern Warfare 2’s final season is still underway and players can earn Battle Pass XP while playing Modern Warfare 3. If you still haven’t unlocked Spawn or the controversial Gaia skin, then there’s still time to do so.

Related: All MW3 Beta Rewards and How to Get Them

Modern Warfare 3 Battle Pass for Season 1

Of course, Season 1 will include a Battle Pass alongside its major features like Warzone integration and new maps. We don’t know much about the Battle Pass yet, but the first set of information revealed about Season 1 will almost certainly showcase the featured skins and rewards that you can earn. Dataminers have already discovered that Nolan, Makarov’s right-hand man from the MW3 Campaign, will be the featured Battle Pass Operator.

The pricing for the Battle Pass will remain the same as it was in Modern Warfare 2. You can get the standard version for 1,100 CoD Points (roughly $10), and there are a handful of free rewards available as well. BlackCell is returning, too, offering additional rewards for $30.

Related: MW3 Mission List: How Long is the Modern Warfare 3 Campaign?

If you own the Vault Edition of Modern Warfare 3, then you already own the Season 1 Battle Pass — plus 30 Tier Skips. On top of that, the Vault Edition gets you the BlackCell version of the Battle Pass with alternate versions of each skin and other rewards. The BlackCell version of the Battle Pass also comes with 20 Tier Skips, so Vault Edition owners will start the Season 1 Battle Pass with 50 Tiers unlocked.

MW3 Season 1 Patch Notes

Season 1 will feature a handful of balance changes, although not many since the most significant changes made to multiplayer were made between the beta period and the full release. Still, there’s a ton of new content on the way.

• 3 New 6v6 Maps
  • Meat
  • Greece
  • Rio
• 4 Returning MW2 Maps
  • Farm 18
  • Mercado Las Almas
  • Shoot House
  • Crown Raceway
• Gunfight
  • Training Facility Map
• All or Nothing
• Zombies Story Updates
  • Enter the Rift: Inside Dark Aether Rifts, Operators will encounter a sinister and chaotic challenge, with limited time on the clock to complete objectives and escape with their lives (and sanity). Dark Aether Rifts are a new end-game experience to master once players have completed the seasonal mission.
  • Friend Zone: A modified V-R11 Wonder Weapon packs a punch, transforming enemies, Zombie or Human, into loyal allies.
  • Gear-up: A new category of unique acquisition schematics that will test the player’s skill to unlock.
• Holiday Event
• Warzone Integration
• Urzikstan Warzone Map

Sledgehammer is committed to the 6v6 experience after players felt it was neglected last year, so there will be 3 new 6v6 maps every Season. In addition, select MW2 maps from last year will be joining the game in their own dedicated playlist, with Farm 18, Mercado Las Almas, and Shoot House set to join “shortly after launch,” according to Activision. We bet these will release sometime in Season 1 (maybe in a mid-season update), so we’ve included them in the list of features.

In addition to the other multiplayer modes like Gunfight and All or Nothing, Warzone integration is the biggest new feature. Urzikstan is the game’s next big map, and the gameplay of Warzone will shift over to the style of MW3. That means faster movement, slide canceling, and all that good stuff. Plus, the loot pool will include all the new MW3 weapons as well.

We’ll have more details to share about Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 once Sledgehammer reveals more information, but in the meantime, there’s plenty to enjoy in MW3’s preseason. All your weapons and operators from last year’s game carry forward to MW3, so there’s no shortage of stuff at launch.