Warzone Reveals Release Date for New Blackout-Inspired Mode 'Black Ops Royale'

Publisher Activision has officially pulled back the curtain on Black Ops Royale, a brand-new game mode for Call of Duty: Warzone that is heavily inspired by Blackout, a game mode from Black Ops 4 which kickstarted the series’ venture into the Battle Royale genre. After confirming late last year that Blackout would be returning, Activision has now provided fans with new details about the mode’s highly anticipated comeback with Call of Duty: Warzone Season 2 Reloaded, which will release later this month.

Before Call of Duty: Warzone became a household name in 2020, cementing itself alongside Fortnite, PUBG, and Apex Legends as one of the top Battle Royale titles, Treyarch Studios took a swing at the genre with Blackout. Released in 2018 alongside Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the mode was a replacement for the shooter’s single-player campaign. The absence of which angered plenty of players. While support for the mode ended when Warzone released a couple of years later, Call of Duty‘s second take on a Battle Royale game features drastically different gameplay elements to what featured in Blackout. This, of course, divided players, with many yearning to return to the days of Black Ops 4‘s Battle Royale.

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Call of Duty Reveals New Warzone Mode: Black Ops Royale

Late last year, Call of Duty confirmed that Blackout would return in Spring 2026. Now, with the shooter’s big Season 2 Reloaded update on the horizon, Warzone developers Raven Software and publisher Activision have released a lengthy new blog post dedicated to Black Ops Royale, a new mode that takes heavy inspiration from Blackout. While Season 2 Reloaded will launch on March 11, Black Ops Royale will arrive on Thursday, March 12 at 9PM PT, or midnight on Friday, March 13, for those on the East Cost.

As Black Ops Royale is inspried by the original Blackout, it will feature no loadouts, no gulag, and no buy stations. Players will also see the return of wingsuits and a Battle Royale experience on Avalon, which debuted with Black Ops 7‘s Campaign and featured much more prominently in the shooter’s Endgame mode. Raven Software has also confirmed that the original Call of Duty Battle Royale perk system will return in Black Ops Royale, but this time with a “flexible twist.” The developer says there are no fixed slots, just five swappable, consumable boosts you activate when the moment demands. Loot them, swap them with your squad, and time their use wisely.

Treyarch’s signature omnimovement system from Black Ops 6 and 7 will remain for Black Ops Royale, alongside new additionals such as wingsuit infil, swimmable waterways, and crossable tidal flats. There will, however, be no gulag for players to earn a second chance in, as redeploy will only be available via tokens or captured towers. Black Ops Royale will also make UAVs much harder to obtain, as they will only be available as part of the Relay Antenna activity.

The Relay Antenna can be found randomly in Avalon, where players must access the flip-up screen on the tripod housing to initiate capture of the device. Bringing this relay under your squad’s control takes around 30 seconds, and once captured, the Relay Antenna will emit a sequence of UAV pings and will also release a Redeploy Drone and wire ascender to allow for rapid deployment.

Activision says further details on the upcoming Season 2 Reloaded will be shared in a new blog post on March 4. While the studio has yet to pull back the curtain on the mid-season update in its entirety, the initial roadmap for the new season did confirm that it will add four new maps in Season 2 Reloaded, three of which will be remasters, and a brand-new Zombies map known as Paradox Junction, which is heavily rumored to take place on numerous iterations of Nuketown.