When is Warzone Season 1 Reloaded? Ranked Play, new guns, more

Nathan Warby
Warzone player parachuting

Warzone Season 1 Reloaded is the next major update coming to the game, bringing the return of Ranked Play, new weapons, and much more.

The Season 1 update finally brought Black Ops 6 and Warzone together, kicking off a brand-new chapter for the CoD Battle Royle. But even after the release of the Area 99 map and the arrival of all the new guns, there’s still plenty more to come in the mid-season update.

Here’s everything you need to know about Warzone Season 1 Reloaded, including when it’s likely to arrive.

Warzone Season 1 Reloaded release

The Warzone Season 1 Reloaded update is expected to arrive on Thursday, December 12, 2024, although this hasn’t been officially confirmed.

Based on the in-game Battle Pass timer, Season 1 is set to last until January 28, so December 12 would place it four weeks into the season, which is when the Reloaded update has dropped historically. However, Season 1 launched slightly earlier than we’re used to, and broke the trend by dropping on a Thursday instead of Wednesday, so there’s every chance it could work differently this time.

Ranked Play returns in Season 1 Reloaded

Warzone Ranked Play Operators

Arguably the biggest part of the Season 1 Reloaded update is the return of Warzone Ranked Play, now on the big map for the first time since MW2. After the MW3 era was restricted to smaller maps like Rebirth Island, the competitive mode is finally coming to Urzikstan.

This is the earliest that Ranked will have been released in Warzone to date, likely to give the devs time to make sure everything is in order before the return of Verdansk in 2025.

We don’t have details yet on whether there will be any changes to the format or Ranks, but we expect it to function very similarly to how it has in the past. That being said, it will at least look different, as the devs confirmed that there will be new cinematics for Infil, Exfil, and the Gulag, as well as the addition of the Winner’s Circle at the end of matches.

New guns in Season 1 Reloaded

There are three new weapons confirmed to arrive after Season 1 Reloaded: the Malestrom Shotgun, AMR Mod 4 Sniper Rifle, and Cleaver Melee.

The Sniper, in particular, sounds like it could be a strong option in Warzone, as it has a semi-auto fire rate and boasts “major damage out to 100 meters.” Meanwhile, the Malestrom is a full-auto Shotgun that will no doubt give players flashbacks to the fire Shotgun meta from past versions.

Unlike previous games, these won’t be available as part of the Battle Pass as soon as the update goes live. Instead, they will each be rewards in specific events set to arrive before the start of Season 2.

The devs have confirmed that a Season 1 Reloaded blog will drop in “early December,” which will give us our first look at the other additions coming in the update. We’ll be sure to update this page with more details then.

In the meantime, make sure you’re running the meta loadouts in Warzone, along with the best Perks to complement them.