Kiplinlen
Call of Duty Black Ops Games in Order
2 min read
Seven mainline entries, one handheld spin-off and a mobile game — with a numbering gap that trips up almost everyone.
Putting the Call of Duty Black Ops games in order is easy until you reach the numbering gap between the fourth game and the sixth. Here is the full sequence by release date.
The mainline games
| Game | Released | Developer |
|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | November 2010 | Treyarch |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | November 2012 | Treyarch |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops III | November 2015 | Treyarch |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | October 2018 | Treyarch |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | November 2020 | Treyarch / Raven |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | 25 October 2024 | Treyarch / Raven |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 | 14 November 2025 | Treyarch / Raven |
Why there is no Black Ops 5
Black Ops Cold War occupies the fifth slot without carrying the number. When the next game arrived in 2024 it was called Black Ops 6, counting Cold War as the fifth entry retroactively. So the series has seven mainline games and no game has ever shipped under the name "Black Ops 5".
The spin-offs
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified (2012) — a PS Vita exclusive built by Nihilistic Software, not Treyarch, and the first Black Ops game with no Zombies mode.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies (2011 on iOS, 2012 on Android) — a mobile Zombies-only release from Ideaworks Game Studio, delisted in December 2021 with its online services shut down in May 2022.
Playing them in story order
Release order and story order are not the same thing. The original game runs through the 1960s, Cold War sits in 1981, Black Ops 6 in 1991, Black Ops II splits between the 1980s and 2025, and Black Ops 7 jumps to 2035. If you want the chronology rather than the release list, start with the 2010 game, then Cold War, then Black Ops 6, then Black Ops II, and finish with Black Ops III and 7 in the far future.