Why is Ranked Play down in MW3?

There’s nothing more annoying than when you try to play a game and can’t, like when Ranked Play is down in Modern Warfare 3.

Time is money, and Call of Duty players often look to spend their time grinding out Ranked Play to earn exclusive rewards, rank points, and bragging rights against common opponents within the ladder and skill divisions they’re placed in.

Ranked Play downtime is a bummer, but it’s usually not a very long affair. Still, it’s understandably frustrating when free time is here but ranked time is not. We’ve got you covered, though, with all the details you need to rank up again when you can.

Here are all the details on why Ranked Play is down in MW3 and when we can expect it to return.

Ranked Play is down on the launch day of season five, July 24, for maintenance downtime in between seasons. The servers will be down from 2am CT and Ranked Play won’t return until after the new update has been deployed and season five is live.

This is a normal occurrence. Ranked Play goes down routinely in MW3 because there is downtime at the start of each season or major update. When a new update goes live, specifically a new season update, Ranked Play is made unavailable and then brought back within a few hours once statistics are reset. Be patient, it’s usually just a couple of hours after the update becomes playable.

In the case of previous downtime earlier in the year on Feb. 23 in season two, that was because of widespread server problems causing major issues in the game. It was soon fixed, but it’s possible this could happen again at any time, so keep an eye out on social pages for news.

Make sure to follow @CODUpdates or @Treyarch on Twitter for official information directly from Activision and CoD developers to know details down to the minute.

MW3 Ranked Play will return in the “morning after the launch of season four,” according to Activision. Season five will go live around 11am CT on July 24, so Ranked Play should return any time after that within the day, unless there are more issues.

Until the Ranked Play playlist returns, we suggest ranking up the new battle pass, unlocking new guns, trying out new maps, and having some fun while warming up for whenever the Ranked mode returns to MW3. If you’re still having issues playing, try a different game or just wait it out.

Ranked Play should be back soon, so sit tight and get ready to hop back in for new rewards and ranks within a new season.