Black Ops 7 Season 1 Release Date: New Maps, Zombies, More

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 launches on Thursday, December 4, 2026, at 9:00 AM PT (12:00 PM ET) across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC, Treyarch and Activision have confirmed. The studios are calling it the biggest Season 1 the franchise has ever shipped, and the official roadmap backs that up: six new multiplayer maps led by a remaster of Black Ops 2's Standoff, a new Round-Based Zombies map with two Survival maps alongside it, a fresh wave of Endgame World Events and Exotic Skills, a stack of new weapons, and a new Warzone Resurgence map with Black Ops 7-themed points of interest arriving in Verdansk.

When Black Ops 7 Season 1 releases

Season 1 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 goes live on December 4, 2026, at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET, the same moment across every platform rather than staggered regional rollouts. That applies to Black Ops 7's Multiplayer, Zombies and Campaign Endgame modes, as well as the connected Call of Duty: Warzone update, which ships its own new content on the same day. The official Season 01 announcement on the Call of Duty blog frames it bluntly: "Get ready for the biggest Season 01 ever, bringing a massive variety of maps, modes, Loadout content, and more."

That "biggest ever" framing is the developers' own characterization rather than an independently verified superlative, but the scale of the published roadmap is hard to argue with. Treyarch and Raven Software are packing in new content across every pillar of the game at once — Multiplayer, Zombies, the Campaign's Endgame mode, and Warzone — instead of staggering major additions across the season.

Video: Call of Duty · Season 01 Launch Trailer | Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Six new multiplayer maps, including a Standoff remaster

Season 1 adds six-plus new maps to Black Ops 7's Multiplayer rotation. At launch on December 4, players drop into three brand-new 6v6 maps — Fate, Utopia and Odysseus — plus a full remaster of Standoff, the mid-sized Black Ops 2 classic known for its central tower, Main Road firefights and tight House-to-Warehouse skirmishes. The Call of Duty blog describes it as "remastered for Black Ops 7," returning "with greater visual fidelity than ever before."

A fifth map, the holiday-themed Sleighjacked variant, arrives just before the CODMAS event, while two further maps — a brand-new Japan-set map called Yakei and a remastered version of Meltdown — are scheduled for the Season 1 Mid-Season update, alongside Fringe, a returning Black Ops 6 distillery map in a new incarnation. Nuketown 2025, a remaster of the series' most iconic small map, also shipped in the Preseason window ahead of Season 1 proper.

• Utopia — brand-new, medium-sized, a repurposed Guild research facility with a three-lane layout built for wall jumps and parkour.
• Fate — brand-new, small-sized, a dreamlike floating map built around a central Courtyard and Church.
• Odysseus — brand-new, small-sized, close-quarters combat aboard a hallucinated aircraft carrier deck.
• Standoff — remaster, medium-sized, the returning Black Ops 2 fan favorite.
• Sleighjacked — in-season variant, small-sized, a holiday-themed take arriving ahead of CODMAS.
• Yakei & Meltdown — arriving at Mid-Season, a new Japan map and a remastered Black Ops 2 map.

New and returning multiplayer modes

Alongside the new maps, Season 1 brings back several party-mode favorites and adds one new objective mode. Prop Hunt, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter, Sticks & Stones and Gun Game are all confirmed for launch or the launch window, and a new mode called Takeover — a 6v6 territory-control mode where teams fight over three rotating neutral zones — is scheduled for the Mid-Season update. CODMAS brings its own limited-time modes, including the Holiday Havoc moshpit and a Snowfight free-for-all.

Season 1 also introduces a new Scorestreak, the Deadeye Drone — a remote-piloted aerial drone armed with a sniper rifle and customizable Overclock abilities — unlockable via a Weekly Challenge. At Mid-Season, a batch of returning Black Ops 6 Loadout items, including the Archangel Launcher, Death Machine and Dreadnought Scorestreaks, joins the arsenal.

Zombies: a new Round-Based map and two Survival maps

Zombies gets its own major content drop. The headline addition is Astra Malorum, a new Round-Based story map set in a century-old observatory drifting in the rings of Saturn, where players track down another Shadowsmith while facing a new Elite enemy, O.S.C.A.R. (Observation System and Carnifex Adjudicator Robot), and unlocking a new Wonder Weapon, the LGM-1.

Two Survival maps round out the Zombies additions: Exit 115, set in an isolated diner location pulled from the base game's Ashes of the Damned map, arrives at launch, while Zarya Cosmodrome follows at Mid-Season. Directed Mode — a guided Main Quest experience aimed at newer players — also arrives for Ashes of the Damned at launch, with a Directed Mode for Astra Malorum following at Mid-Season. A returning Mule Kick perk, two new GobbleGums, and a 30-player Leaderboard Event for Astra Malorum round out the mode's Season 1 update. Treyarch Design Director Kevin Drew has previously detailed how the Dark Aether's destinations are built to echo earlier Zombies eras — a direction laid out in Xbox Wire's feature on Black Ops 7 Zombies' design — and Astra Malorum continues that approach. For a deeper look at how the base game's Zombies maps and modes fit together, see our breakdown of Black Ops 7's Zombies maps, modes and Easter egg.

Endgame: new World Events and Exotic Skills

Black Ops 7's Campaign epilogue mode, Endgame, became instantly accessible to all players on the vast Avalon map as of November 21, and Season 1 expands it significantly. Four multi-stage World Events are planned across the season: Colossus of Avalon, a battle against a giant mechanical threat, and Toxic Tyrant, centered on a neurotoxin outbreak, both arrive at launch; Wraith Wing, a fight against a cloning VTOL aircraft, is scheduled for Mid-Season, alongside a fourth event the developers haven't named yet.

Completing World Events awards Exotic Skill Cases, which unlock one of eight new Exotic Skills at launch — abilities like Mega Punch, Resurrection and Graviton Reaction that can be equipped and upgraded. A ninth skill set, the Phantom Skill Track, built around stealth play, arrives at Mid-Season. Endgame also gets its own CODMAS event, adding festive Supply Box drops to Avalon during the holiday window.

New weapons and attachments

Season 1 widens Black Ops 7's arsenal with seven new weapons spread across the launch Battle Pass and in-season events. The Kogot-7 SMG and Maddox RFB assault rifle — a returning favorite from Black Ops 4 — unlock through the Season 1 Battle Pass at launch, alongside the returning Ballistic Knife melee weapon. Later in the season, players can earn the Sokol 545 LMG, the NX Ravager special crossbow, the Sturmwolf 45 SMG and the Hawker HX sniper rifle through events and Weekly Challenges.

Eleven new Weapon Attachments are also planned for the season, including the dual-wield Akita Scorchlink Akimbo shotgun attachment and the Redwell Shade-X Suppressor, a muzzle attachment compatible with any weapon that takes one. Every Season 1 weapon supports full Weapon Prestige progression and its own set of unlockable camos, continuing the Mastery Camo chase introduced with the base game's 30 launch weapons.

Warzone: Haven's Hollow and new Verdansk points of interest

Call of Duty: Warzone's Season 1 update is tied directly to the Black Ops 7 integration and lands at the same time, December 4. The headline addition is Haven's Hollow, a brand-new Resurgence map set in the Appalachian Mountains, built around a small town with a lab, a mansion and a floating riverboat casino.

Verdansk also receives two new Black Ops 7-themed points of interest: a new Signal Station, an interactive location that rewards the squad holding it with a view of nearby enemy positions, and a remastered Factory, a dense, loot-heavy building cluster returning since its original appearance in Verdansk '84. Season 1 also resets Warzone's Player Level, brings all 30 Black Ops 7 launch weapons plus the new Season 1 weapons into the Warzone meta, and introduces movement changes — Tac Sprint has been folded into the Sprinter Perk, with base movement speed increased to compensate.

Battle Pass, progression and other changes

Season 1 ships with a new Battle Pass spanning free and premium tiers, delivering new Weapon Blueprints, Operator skins, Calling Cards, Finishing Moves and Emotes. The season's two confirmed Operators are Dorne, unlocked through the Battle Pass, and Scorn, available through the premium BlackCell track. Treyarch says it adjusted Battle Pass tuning based on completion-time feedback from Black Ops 6, aiming for pages to clear faster with fewer tiers needed to reach HVT content. Player Level and Weapon progression carry across Campaign Endgame, Multiplayer, Zombies and Warzone, so time spent in any one mode advances the same Battle Pass.

Players who complete Activision's account email verification are also set to receive a batch of Double XP tokens and a universal weapon camo once Season 1 begins, according to the official rollout details. Those weighing whether to jump into Black Ops 7 ahead of Season 1 can also compare it against Activision's other current shooter in our price, release date and platform comparison of Modern Warfare 4 and Black Ops 7.

Why Treyarch is calling this the biggest Season 1 yet

Treyarch and Activision haven't published a side-by-side comparison against previous Call of Duty Season 1 launches to back up the "biggest ever" label, so it's worth treating as the developers' own marketing framing rather than a verified fact. What is confirmed, directly from the official rollout, is the breadth of what's shipping on day one across four separate modes simultaneously — Multiplayer, Zombies, Campaign Endgame and Warzone — rather than concentrating new content in just one or two of them, which has not always been the case in past Black Ops seasons.

Readers who tracked the game's pre-launch testing can see how that early reception took shape in our coverage of the Black Ops 7 open beta.

What's next

Treyarch has confirmed a handful of Season 1 additions are being held back for the Mid-Season update, including the Yakei and Meltdown multiplayer maps, the Takeover mode, the Zarya Cosmodrome Survival map, Directed Mode for Astra Malorum, the Wraith Wing Endgame World Event and the Phantom Skill Track, along with a further wave of returning Black Ops 6 Loadout items. Activision has also said more detail on the Season 1 Battle Pass, BlackCell and Store bundles would follow in a separate post ahead of the December 4 launch. Expect official patch notes to land on the Call of Duty blog on launch day itself, with Warzone's companion update going live at the same time. Check back on Pandromeda's gaming desk as Season 1 goes live and the Mid-Season roadmap is confirmed.

Written byJonah Reyes

Jonah Reyes leads Pandromeda's gaming coverage: console and handheld hardware, release dates, pricing changes, patch notes and the business moves behind the biggest franchises. He sources every date and price from the platform holders and publishers themselves, and says plainly when something is still only a rumour.

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