How To Fix Lag In Call Of Duty Modern Warfare

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is one of the most played multiplayer games these days. There are a few reasons behind the immense popularity of this game. First of all, the battle royale part of the game, Warzone , is free to play and attracts a massive audience. Secondly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare offers gameplay that Infinity Ward has perfected after more than a decade.

Be it the full range of vast and detailed multiplayer maps or the variety of customizable guns. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare offers everything. The developer support behind the game is also amazing. Since the release, we have got 4 Season updates that brought new features and content to the game as well as several small patches.

Call of duty warzone

The game is, however, prone to a lot of errors. It is one of the most demanding and massive games developed for PC and consoles. With every patch, the developers try to fix the existing ones, and soon after, another one pops up.

The most recent error which users are experiencing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is random lag spikes in-game. The Lag Spike issue started in Call of Duty: Modern warfare after the recent mid-season update, and it is very frustrating for players.

While several reasons may cause high latency and "rubberbanding" in the game, here are a few things you can try in case you are experiencing lag and stuttering issues.

1. Restart your device:

This method will certainly not fix any network related issues, but restarting your console or computer can help a lot of times. If you're playing on a computer, you can also try to restart the application. The reason for performing this step is that sometimes game routing can malfunction and dedicate the wrong server to you.

Also read: Modern Warfare had a Zombies Mode that never saw the light of day

Most of the users have dynamic IPs that change from time to time. In the case of a distant game, server, or poor routing, users will experience higher ping and packet loss in worse situations. These packet losses can also result in lag spikes while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It is also a good practice to check your game region and make sure that it is the one closest to your physical location.

2. Refresh Router:

One common fix for most network-related problems is restarting your wifi router or modem. While it may seem irrelevant and straightforward, it does happen to work in most cases. Rebooting the router flushes out any temporary information present that may have been clogging your internet connection. This has proven to be an easy solution for issues related to connectivity and lag spikes in Modern Warfare.

Restarting is pretty straightforward. You can either restart the router remotely from the management IP, or you can manually plug it out and then back in after a couple of seconds.

3. Stop Unnecessary Applications:

While most modern games do not require a lot of data transfer over the network, they can still suffer from high ping if your network bandwidth is falling short. Bandwidth is the amount of data you can simultaneously send, and it is limited by your ISP depending on the package.

Now, most of the apps running on computer or console consume network bandwidth. One typical example is music or video streaming. Most of the modern audio and video standards need large amounts of data transfers, which might end up in a low headroom for game data transfer.

modern warfare — (Source: graphicarea.net)

Similarly, streaming gameplay also uses up network traffic. Most internet connections have low upload speeds, which will, in turn, affect gameplay while streaming. Therefore if you plan to stream while gaming, you should have a reliable internet connection. The right choice would be opting for a fiber-optic connection. So, changing over could also help with fixing the lag spikes in Modern Warfare.

4. Change Connection Type:

One of the leading causes of Ping fluctuations or lag spikes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is playing over a wireless connection. Wireless connection is extremely unreliable when it comes to gaming. In case you have a shared wireless connection, the number of persons using simultaneously will hurt the gaming experience severely.

Also Read: How to fix Low FPS, Lag, and crashes in Call of Duty: MW

An easy fix for wireless latency and speed problems is using a wired connection. Not only does a wired connection reduce your latency by a few milliseconds, but it also improves stability and speeds. A wired connection will also reduce rare packet loss that users experience on wifi.

5. Enable QoS:

QoS stands for Quality of Service. This is a function useful for multi-user networks. It allows you to prioritize specific devices and allot fixed bandwidth to them. Using this will reduce network interference, and you will no longer get ping/lag spikes on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare if someone starts a video stream over the network.

modern warfare lag spikes — (Source: timeincuk.net )

Most of the modern routers come equipped with smartphone applications. These provide the ability to prioritize devices over the network. In case your router did not come with an app, it does not mean you can't do this. It's a fair chance your router might have this function. Make sure you search the internet for guides on your exact router.

6. Disable VPN:

If you have a VPN running in the background, it's a good practice to disable it. Not only do most game developers block game accounts using VPNs, but it also interferes with the game's routing. A VPN, in simple words, changes your location by giving you an IP address of another site now this location can be far away from your physical one.

Modern games use your IP to determine the game region and direct you to the specific server that is closest to your IP. Using a VPN can, therefore, cause connectivity problems in-game and might also be the reason for ping stutters or lag spikes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

call of duty modern warfare

7. Check for Official Modern Warfare Support:

If any of the fixes mentioned above did not fix the high ping issue in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, then it means that there an issue on the game server side. Now the game support and developers can be very helpful. And, usually, a patch is released pretty soon after identification of bug. You can try to speed up this process as well. All it requires is the submission of a ticket to the game developer.

Infinity Ward has a dedicated support forum for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. You can head over to the website and verify that all game services are running correctly. Several discussion topics can prove helpful, as well.

For more network-related issues, check out our post on Unable to Access online Services error in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Patch Notes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare July Update

The lag spike issue in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare surfaced earlier this week after the July update was pushed out to the players. The update came in the form of a minor patch that was just supposed to fix some bugs. However, it added the annoying connectivity issues to the game instead. You can check out the full patch notes for the latest Modern Warfare update below:

Fix for incorrect text appearing as one of the SUV camps
Fix for the Rytec AMR not awarding the correct amount of XP when using explosive rounds'
Fixed an issue where the Rytec AMR could one-hit kill when using explosive rounds in BR
Fix for the Fully Loaded gun perk not functioning as intended when equipping alternate ammunition on the Rytec AMR
Fixed a bug where a CUAVs could be found in Warzone
Fixed an issue where some players were unable to use Field Upgrades in FFA
Fix for an issue where players were able to go AFK while playing All or Nothing

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. You can download the free-to-play Battle Royale game mode, Warzone right here .