MW3 is finally testing persistent multiplayer lobbies, and fans are delighted

Sledgehammer Games promised Call of Duty fans that they would test out persistent multiplayer lobbies in Modern Warfare 3, and four months after making that statement, the game’s season three patch has finally added the option.

Following the release of the major April 3 update, players can now choose to remain with both the teammates and opponents that they played their previous match with, with a toggle appearing on the post-game scoreboard. Those who select it will head into another game with the same group, while those who decline will be sent back to the lobby.

If you’re an old-school CoD fan, you’ll remember the days of jumping into matches on the original Modern Warfare 2, getting into arguments with your opponents, and playing against them all night long. That all ended in 2019 with the launch of Infinite Warfare’s Modern Warfare, which dropped the system entirely. Finally, after five long years, Sledgehammer are testing it out once again, and the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.

CoD fans delighted to see persistent lobbies back

Despite not appearing in the season three patch notes, fans of the game started to notice the addition after playing matches. It wasn’t until CharlieIntel posted about it that it exploded into the wider community. After waiting for almost half a decade to get persistent lobbies back, it shouldn’t be a surprise that players are delighted.

“I love it, especially for [Free-For-All] lobbies,” wrote one player on X, formerly Twitter. “When [I] find that chill lobby, I’m going to live in it for a while like the old days.” Another agreed, claiming that “Few things were better than making a temporary best friend for [a couple of] hours in a CoD lobby.”

While the majority of players are delighted by the addition, not everybody is satisfied just yet. That’s because persistent lobbies need to be toggled on, as it is off by default. Many suggested that Sledgehammer should set it on as the default, meaning that lobbies would continue on and players who wanted to leave could, rather than sending everyone to the main menu automatically.

As a long-time Call of Duty player myself, I’m happy to see MW3 bring back persistent lobbies. They were such a fun way to meet new players, and I still have friends on my Xbox Live account that I made randomly in an MW2 lobby way back in 2009. Some of my fondest gaming memories come from persistent lobbies too, especially when my buddies and I would get into battles against another squad, and we would spend hours going from map to map, trash-talking and competing.

Call of Duty has come a long way since those days, but sometimes it feels like it has forgotten its roots. This addition brings a little bit of that old-school feel back to the game though, and for me, that can only be a good thing.