Highlights

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set between the events of Black Ops 2's 1980s missions and its 2025 missions.
  • Gamers that want to start the Black Ops story at the very beginning will need to play World at War.
  • Currently, the latest game in the Black Ops series timeline is Black Ops 3.

Now that official details on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's campaign are available, we know exactly where it falls in the series' timeline. The Call of Duty franchise features multiple timelines for players to follow. However, none of them have been quite as consistent as the Treyarch-developed games, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 set to be the next installment by the fan favorite studio.

Treyarch's main series Call of Duty efforts started with Call of Duty 3, a World War 2 FPS that was released in 2006. Treyarch followed that up with Call of Duty: World at War, which was also set during World War 2. World at War introduced the characters Dimitri Petrenko and Viktor Reznov, who would later appear in the first Call of Duty: Black Ops game.

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The first Call of Duty: Black Ops takes place in the 1960s, whereas Black Ops 2 jumps to the 80s and even features some missions set in 2025. Black Ops 3 takes place in 2065, whereas Black Ops 4 is set throughout the 2040s. Black Ops Cold War, the fifth game in the Black Ops sub-series, takes place from 1981 to 1984. Needless to say, there may be some confusion as to where exactly Black Ops 6 fits in the timeline, but it's now been confirmed to take place in the early 1990s. This means that, chronologically speaking, Black Ops 6 is set between the 1980s and 2025 missions in Black Ops 2.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Series Timeline

  • 1942 - 1945 - World at War
  • 1961 - 1968 - Black Ops 1
  • 1981 - 1984 - Black Ops Cold War
  • 1986 - 1989 - Black Ops 2 (Past Missions)
  • Early 90s - Black Ops 6
  • 2025 - Black Ops 2 (Future Missions)
  • 2040s - Black Ops 4
  • 2065 - Black Ops 3

Call of Duty fans that want to follow the story chronologically will need to start with World at War, which is luckily backward compatible on Xbox. They would then need to play Black Ops 1, Black Ops Cold War, the past missions of Black Ops 2, the upcoming Black Ops 6, the future missions of Black Ops 2, Black Ops 4, and then finally, Black Ops 3. It should be noted that even though Black Ops 4 doesn't have a single-player campaign, it still tells a story set in the 2040s.

Black Ops 6 will feature the return of recognizable characters like Russell Adler and Frank Woods, and so it will be exciting to see just how many connections it has with the other games in the timeline. And of course, Black Ops 6 is bringing back round-based Zombies, which has its own story that's been told in every installment since World at War as well.