Best Warzone 2 VPN: Call of Duty VPNs to bypass SBMM, get easier lobbies, improve gameplay

Searching for the best Call of Duty VPN on the market? Whether you’re playing Warzone 2, the original CoD: Warzone (now rebranded as Warzone 1), or Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (commonly referred to as CoD: MW2), there are a number of reasons that you should be playing with a VPN service running in the background at all times.

All of these CoD multiplayer experiences enjoy a serious boost when played with one of the best VPNs installed on your PC, Sony PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, or Sony PS4. VPNs enable you to shield yourself from DDoS and other hacks, but more importantly, these applications enable you to swerve SBMM and all-but guarantee you always get the easy lobbies to secure comfortable wins and steadily boost your K/D ratio and rank up faster.

For those who don’t know, the latest Call of Duty titles developed by Activision almost all rely on the controversial SBMM (Skill-Based Matchmaking) functionality to pair players for online Call of Duty gunfights. SBMM isn’t a setting that you can toggle on or off with a menu, instead, it’s baked into the server-side settings only available to the developer.

Fortunately, one of the many benefits of using a VPN is bypassing SBMM in Call of Duty. Using a CoD VPN could enable you more control over who your next opponent is in CoD: MW2 or Warzone 2.0. This means you can almost guarantee that you’ll get placed in an easy lobby – with lower-ranked players to compete against.

In other words: match-matching in online multiplayer returns to what many CoD players have been accustomed to for years.

We’ve got all of the details on how a Call of Duty VPN impacts online gaming features like SBMM below.

That’s not all, VPNs can unlock different regional in-game perks too since these applications enable you to manually spoof your IP address and change your location.

Using a VPN will defend against a number of dangerous online attacks. These involve in-game hackers tracing your IP and launching a DDoS (Distributed Denial-Of-Service) attack on your home network – interrupting your gameplay and causing chaos.

We’ve got all of the details on the benefits of pairing a brilliant VPN deal with CoD below.

However, if you already know why you want a Virtual Private Network installed on your PC, mac, Playstation or Xbox …then we’d recommend NordVPN. For its annual birthday sale, this popular VPN service has slashed prices by 59% and is bundling 3 months or 1 year of its service for free with any purchase.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the latest mainline entry in the best-selling series from Activision, with the usual online multiplayer and Tier 1 modes.

CoD: Warzone 2.0 is the latest edition of the immensely-popular battle royale series, which sees 150 players fight it out until only one winner remains. A new DMZ mode sees players take on both AI-controlled enemies and rival players to extract prisoners to safety.

Finally, the original Warzone servers remain online, with users who don’t want to abandon their level-up progress or in-game purchases able to continue playing as before.

All of these Call of Duty titles would benefit from a VPN installed on your device – protecting against online attacks, ensuring you always get the easy lobbies to improve your K/D ratio, and unlocking region-specific perks and prizes included with your Battle Pass. Scroll down for more details on our top-rated VPN service, ExpressVPN, as well as details on how VPNs work in Call of Duty multiplayer, how VPNs can disable SBMM in MW2 and Warzone 2.0, and more.

Click on any of the links to immediately jump to the relevant section, or scroll down for the complete guide.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is software designed to create a secure, encrypted tunnel to shield your data whenever you go online.

This layer of protection stops hackers from intercepting your data or tracking your location. It can also prevent advertisers from keeping tabs on your web history to tailor adverts to your tastes. Lastly, it can also block your internet provider from storing data on your online habits, which in some countries can be sold on to third-parties.

In other words, think of a VPN like a supercharged version of the Incognito Mode built into your Chrome web browser.

But there are other benefits too.

The best VPN providers offer a choice of thousands of server locations around the world. Routing your online traffic via any of these VPN servers will manually change your IP address, making it appear as if you’re located in another city, country, or continent. This allows you to unlock new TV shows, sports fixtures, streaming services, or movies not available in your country. It can also reveal new in-game item packs restricted to select countries worldwide.

The ability to spoof your location with a VPN is also what enables you to bypass SBMM in online multiplayer titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and Overwatch 2.

SBMM refers to the practice of “Skill-Based Matchmaking”, which sees players matched exclusively based on their abilities. Developers, like Activision, claim that SBMM ensures that everyone gets higher-quality matches. And while it’s undoubtedly true that SBMM can be a great way to get new players into the game – since they’re only face-off against players with similar abilities – it can be a headache for those at the top.

At the top ranks of titles like CoD: Warzone, players will continually spar with the best of the best. This means players need to try exceptionally hard each and every time they load-up the game as even a momentarily lapse could see them finish bottom of the table. There’s no reprieve to be found in unranked modes either.

For those who want to use games as an escape, this can be pretty infuriating. Since the best players on the planet tend not to be based within a 400-miles radius, it means top players are being matched with gamers on the other side of the planet, instead of prioritising latency and ping time – and ensuring everyone has the best possible connection.

Activision has stayed pretty quiet on the controversy around SBMM in its titles and never outright confirmed its use across Call of Duty titles.

Regrettably, SBMM (Skill-Based Match Making) is not something you’ll find in the settings menu of Call of Duty that you can disable with a click. Rather, it’s a server-side option that Activision is believed to have baked into the experience from the start.

However, VPNs are a clever way of swerving the worst of SBMM and ensuring that you’re paired with easier lobbies – ensuring that you can maintain your K/D (Kill/Death) ratio and aren’t facing off against competition-level players each time you fire-up Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 for a quick game. If you want to avoid SBMM, follow the steps below.

Sign-up and install a VPN, we’d recommend ExpressVPN due to its lightning-fast connection speeds, low ping, and 3 months free deal

Load-up and sign-in to your VPN software

Choose the best server location – ideally, you want to select a country that’s likely to have a small number of players currently active online (look for a timezone where it’s currently 4am) but that’s not too far from Activision’s dedicated Warzone servers

Open Call of Duty: Warzone and check the location matches where you’ve selected within your VPN

Check the ping is good – an optimal ping is considered to be anything sub-100ms

And that’s it, begin looking for a lobby to begin playing. Since there are unlikely to be huge numbers of players in your current (spoofed) location, Activision won’t have enough candidates to employ SBMM and will pair you with lower-ranked players or, even better, bots

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work as Activision attempts to clampdown of those swerving its controversial SBMM feature. However, there are a few more tricks that you might want to employ to get the easy lobbies on Call of Duty.

Add another player – if you have a sky-high ranking and ludicrous K/D ration, Activision will always try to pair you with the best CoD players on the planet. However, adding a second controller with a lower-ranked player joining you with cause Activision to rethink its approach, and will ensure you’re both more likely to be loaded into easier lobbies

Disable Crossplay – this is another method that many CoD players swear by. A number of PC players don’t allow the game to pit them against consoles, but if you have the option enabled then you open yourself up to a bigger pool of potential matches – increasing the chances that Activision can find higher-ranked individuals with high K/D ratios to populate your lobby. Like picking a less-popular time to play, you want to limit that choice.

There are a number of benefits to using a VPN when playing Call of Duty titles like MW2 and Warzone.

First up, players claim the software can be used to bypass the dreaded SBMM algorithm by manually changing your location. This allows you to change your location to a country with a different timezone – ideally at a quieter time of day, which means you’ll likely to placed in a gamer server with fewer players, increasing your chances of getting easier lobbies in Warzone and MW2.

Evenings are typically the busiest times, so it makes sense to avoid that time – as that’s when you’re most likely to come across the strongest competition.

As well as SBMM, Call of Duty still relies on data-markers like time zone, ping and latency to create its lobbies. Otherwise, players could find themselves waiting for hours until someone with a similarly-matched KD ratio to pick-up a controller. So, players with the mammoth KD ratios of 3.0 or more, then switching to a quieter server is a good way to get Activision to turn a blind-eye to your ability and match you with less able players. This is why your chances are dramatically increased of swerving SBMM.

Manually changing your IP address (and therefore, location) can also help to protect your identity online. In-game agitators have been known to track the location of players, using IP address, and launch a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack to take out their internet connection. If you’re worried about these cyber attacks or want to enjoy a match against players that have an almost identical KD ratio – a VPN is a great choice for CoD players.

Yes, there’s no reason that installing and running a VPN service with Call of Duty will have any impact on your Battle Pass progress.

For those who don’t know, an all-new Battle Pass launched alongside CoD: Modern Warfare 2. Those who purchased the Vault Edition of the game on Steam, PS4, PS5, or Xbox will find the first Battle Pass included. If you only bought the standard version of the game, the Battle Pass is available from the in-game store.

Battle Pass allows players to earn in-game rewards as they play. Within Warzone 2.0, these rewards take the form of a new weapon to use in-game, a skin for your character, Call of Duty points, or an all-new vehicle. New for Warzone 2.0, these rewards can be earned in a non-linear way – this is a dramatic departure from older Call of Duty titles, where players were forced to earn rewards one-by-one in an order predetermined by Activision.

This time around, those who only want to focus on a specific perk – like vehicles or weapons, for example – can hone-in on these rewards from the start.

Without entering into a single gunfight, the Battle Pass arrives with 20 free items for players.

You can earn a maximum of 100 Battle Token Tier Skips with each Battle Pass. After that, you can expect the next Battle Pass to drop – dubbed Season 2 with a bucket-load of new unlockables. If you don’t spend your Battle Token Tier Skips on specific items, the game will automatically spend them on items for you at the end of the season.

Set on using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with Call of Duty? Our top pick is ExpressVPN. We’ve got more details on this stellar VPN service below, or you can sign-up now and get three months for free and 49% off your remaining subscription.

ExpressVPN is a brilliant choice for gaming, including the biggest Call of Duty: MW2 and Call of Duty: Warzone, because of its minimal impact on bandwidth. Sure, routing your traffic through a VPN server – especially one on the other side of the planet – is always going to slow your broadband speed slightly. But while some providers have huge impacts on your ability to stream video, play games, and make video calls …ExpressVPN is not one of them.

We’ve got details on speeds tests before and after connecting to one of ExpressVPN’s servers to determine its impact, which you can see in our in-depth ExpressVPN review.

ExpressVPN charges a little more than the competition, but its reliability and download speed justifies that cost. The VPN provider also offers a 30-day no-quibbles money-back guarantee, which acts almost like a free trial for the service.

Given that privacy is one of the biggest reasons to use a VPN, it’s reassuring that ExpressVPN never collects identifying information about its customers, including IP address, online activity, traffic destination, or even the length of each session. In fact, ExpressVPN has taken a number of additional steps to prove its dedication to privacy.

The company has based itself in the British Virgin Islands because there are no data retention laws there. That means ExpressVPN isn’t legally obliged to keep tabs on the browsing habits of its customers, so even if law enforcement request data on you …ExpressVPN has nothing to hand over. This is different to companies based in the UK, mainland Europe and United States which are required to keep some records on customers.

ExpressVPN accepts a wide range of payment options, including Mastercard, VISA, American Express, and Discover. Paypal and Bitcoin are also options. Klarna is also supported for those who want to unlock the massive discount available – reserved for the one-year subscription plans – but still want to pay in smaller instalments.

NordVPN is a superb VPN with over 5,000 server locations spread across 59 countries worldwide. And its subscription plans tend to be a little more affordable than ExpressVPN, so those on a budget might be better suited using NordVPN to play CoD: MW2 and Warzone – while still unlocking all of the benefits of gaming with a VPN.

Want more detail? Our in-depth NordVPN review has speed test results, feature breakdowns, and more.

NordVPN allows subscribers to connect a generous 6 different devices at the same time. That’s especially handy since NordVPN has apps for almost every device you could think of, including iPhone, iPad, Android, games consoles, Chromebooks, Chromecast, Fire TV Stick dongles, Windows, Linux, and macOS. NordVPN also offers software for Wi-Fi routers, so you can ensure that everything connected to your home Wi-Fi network is protected – perfect for devices without a dedicated app from NordVPN.

Split-tunnelling is included as standard with NordVPN, so you’ll be able to ensure your CoD: Warzone game is shielded by a VPN connection, while other devices or applications on your PC continue to connect directly (and unprotected) to the internet.

NordVPN isn’t just a Virtual Private Network as your subscription also covers a password manager from the brand. For those who don’t know, password managers allow you to generate unique passwords for every website or app that you use. These are all stored within the password manager, so you don’t need to remember every % symbol or random sequence of numbers.

NordVPN offers a number of possible payment options, including all major credit card providers (Mastercard, VISA, AMEX, and Discovery). PayPal and Amazon Pay are also accepted too. Unlike most of the other providers on this list, you can also pay for NordVPN using Apple Pay and Google Pay. This will allow you to breeze through the checkout process, with your iPhone or Android filling in all of the payment details (and keeping your credit card details stashed away).

Surfshark VPN might just be the best VPN deal around – with discounts over 80% available on its VPN subscription. Of course, you’ll get access to all of the usual features – with solid apps available for all of your devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Linux, Fire TV, and macOS.

For those with bucketloads of gadgets at home, Surfshark means you won’t need to juggle which devices are signed-in …something that you might be forced to do with ExpressVPN’s 5 device limit and NordVPN’s (slightly) more generous 6 gadget ceiling.

Like our top pick, Surfshark does offer a password manager for subscribers (at an extra cost) so you can secure all aspects of your digital life with a single monthly bill. Password managers allow you to create unique alpha-numeric passwords for every online account, with all of these impossible-to-remember passwords stored in an online repository. All you need to do is remember the password to the software vault.

Elsewhere, you’ll find the same 30-day money-back guarantee and 24/7 customer support as NordVPN and ExpressVPN, so there’s no risk when signing up for the first time and seeing how Surfshark performs for you. The money-back guarantee acts a little like a free trial, so you can unlock the biggest discounts by signing up for longer contract lengths, safe in the knowledge that you can get a full refund if you don’t get along with Surfshark.

Surfshark VPN accepts all credit cards, from VISA to Mastercard, AMEX and Discover. There’s also Paypal, Apple Pay and Google Pay – handy if you don’t want to manually fill-out all of your details at the checkout. You can also pay for your VPN subscription with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

If you prefer to play your Call Of Duty on a mobile device, you’ll be able to use all of the VPN providers listed in the article above with COD Mobile. Better still, since the Virtual Private Networks included in this guide allow subscribers to be signed-in simultaneously on between 5 (ExpressVPN) to an unlimited number of gadgets (Surfshark VPN) then you’ll be able to use these VPNs for COD Mobile as well as console and PC titles like Call Of Duty: MW2 and Warzone for the same flat monthly fee.

Like all other versions of Call Of Duty, there are some advantages to using a VPN service with this best-selling game. VPNs are known for their ability to boost privacy online, and the same applies for those playing COD on their smartphone and tablets – protecting your IP address from nefarious players looking to cause chaos with DDoS attacks. VPNs also enable you to bypass restrictions applied by your mobile network, with some of these services restricting gaming traffic on 4G and 5G networks to save bandwidth. With a VPN, everything you’re doing online is shielded from outsiders, so there’s no way for third-party companies to know what you’re doing – bypassing any restrictions or limits on specific types of traffic.

Choosing a good server location is crucial to ensuring the best experience with Call of Duty. Since you’ll want to avoid any slowdown or lag, it’s best to select a server location that’s close to Activision’s own Warzone 2.0 servers.

In total, there are 29 servers that power the online multiplayer title dotted around the world, with the majority located in the United States, UK, and mainland Europe.

To ensure you’re admitted to a lobby with easy players, you’ll want to pick a location where it’s early in the morning.

Ideally, aim for a timezone where it’s around 4am, or another time when hundreds of thousands are unlikely to be playing Call of Duty. Of course, heading online at 4am won’t guarantee a lobby filled with lower-ranked players and bots, but it significantly increases your chances.

Make sure the server location you’ve picked isn’t too far away that you’ll be saddled with a high ping. The further the server location from you, the higher the ping – which will reduce the quality of the experience when playing online. Servers in the USA are a pretty good choice for players who live outside of North America since the ping rarely goes above 100ms. Singapore is another popular choice for players looking for a dramatic difference in timezones.

Those based in the US should look for servers in Egypt, Singapore, or the UK.

With fewer players online at around 5am, Activision is likely to deemphasise the importance of SBMM, with players more likely to be coupled with competitors with lower K/D (Kill/Death) ratios and a lower overall ranking. However, your luck in securing the easiest server will also depend on your own K/D ratio and internet connection quality, amongst other things.

Using a VPN with Call of Duty Warzone 2 or MW2 can help to reduce lag when playing online …but only in a few set circumstances. For example, if your broadband provider has strict limits on certain types of usage – like online multiplayer gaming – then disguising your online traffic with the encryption available from a VPN can help to reduce lag. That’s because your internet provider will no longer be able to determine what you’re doing.

If you’re using a Wi-Fi connection provided by a hotel, university, school, or (we won’t tell…) work office, then it’s possible that high-bandwidth activities like gaming will be automatically downgraded. The encryption provided by a VPN, which keeps everything hidden away from prying eyes, means your broadband provider will no longer be able to determine what you’re doing online.

If using a VPN doesn’t solve your lag problems, it might be worth looking into upgrading to a faster broadband package, or adjusting your settings within Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is the instalment in the blockbuster battle royal spin-off from the mainline Call of Duty series. Like other popular free-to-play titles, including Fortnite, Fall Guys, Apex Legends, and Rocket League, Warzone 2.0 will continually evolve with the arrival of new bundles of content, dubbed “seasons”.

While Warzone 2.0 will clearly be the focus for developer Activision moving forward, it has pledged not to kill off the original Warzone for players who want to continue playing in the first instalment. None of your cosmetics, your rank level, or statistics will transfer from Call of Duty: Warzone to Warzone 2.0 as the follow-up is a completely new title.

There is one exception to this rule – your CoD Points will be transferable across all games as long as you’re playing on the same machine.

Warzone 2.0 will be playable from November 16, 2022, the publishers have confirmed. Given the humongous file sizes we’ve come to expect from the latest Call of Duty instalments (the first Warzone title required somewhere north of 100GB of free space on a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S…) Activision will helpfully allow players to pre-install some of the biggest files so they can immediately jump into the game when the release time arrives. 

Players can begin pre-loading the files required for CoD: Warzone 2.0 starting from Monday November 14, 2022. For those around the world, the pre-load start times are as follows:

• UK: 6pm (GMT)
• Europe: 7pm (CET)
• North America – East Coast: 1:00pm (ET)
• North America – West Coast: 10am (PT)

This will be available to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC players. This 48-hour window to download and install all of the files should ensure that everyone – even those with the slowest broadband speeds – can get everything in place ready for the worldwide launch on November 16, 2022. Those who already have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 installed on their console might find the install size of Warzone 2.0 is slightly less cumbersome as the two games share some files.

The release time for Warzone 2.0 is currently scheduled for Wednesday November 16, 2022 at the following times:

• UK: 6pm (GMT)
• Europe: 7pm (CET)
• North America – East Coast: 1:00pm (ET)
• North America – West Coast: 10am (PT)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 season one will go live at the same time, so expect servers to be immensely busy. Early adopters who tried to play MW2 on the first night reported some match-matching issues, dropped connections, and stuttering. These issues usually resolve themselves within a few hours as demand settles to normal levels. 

The arrival of a new Call of Duty release is a big deal. The launch of Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) sees series stalwarts Infinity Ward back at the helm. MW2 is a direct sequel to the 2019 reboot, dubbed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Confusingly, both the 2019 reboot and 2022 sequel share the same titles as 2007 and 2009 releases in the series.

The Modern Warfare campaign was available one week ahead of the official release date (October 28, 2022) to players who had placed a preorder for the digital copy of the game. Like the launch of the campaign, the release time of the online multiplayer depends on whether you’re playing on PC or Xbox or PlayStation. The region you’re based in will also impact when you can start to play the hotly-anticipated online multiplayer.

The CoD: MW2 multiplayer release time on Sony PlayStation and Xbox is scheduled for 0.01am in your local timezone. This will see the release staggered across the globe.

There is an exception – North America. CoD players in the USA and Canada will see online multiplayer launch at 0.01am on the East Coast. Due to the time difference, those on the West Coast, will be able to start playing at 9.01pm on Thursday October 27, 2022.

The MW2 release time on PC is synchronised across the globe.

Due to different timezones, that means some PC players will be able to play CoD: MW2 ahead of schedule …while others will have to wait longer than their console counterparts. The release times for Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer on PC are:

• UK: 5am (BST)
• Europe: 6am (CEST)
• North America – East Coast: 12:01am (EDT)
• North America – West Coast: 9pm, Thursday October 28 (PDT)

With the arrival of Call of Duty: Warzone 2, Activision temporarily took the first-generation of its Battle Royale game (Warzone 1.0) offline. This was to enable developer Raven Software to focus all of its attention on supporting the new title (this was a good decision, with a confirmed 25 million players logging in to play Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 within the first five days of its release. With that dizzying number of concurrent players, it’s perhaps unsurprising that developers had their hands full fixing crashes, infinite in-game money glitches, and bugs with boats and other transportation across the Al Mazrah map.

With the dust now settled, Activision has returned CoD: Warzone 1.0 back online. Since the sequel is an entirely new title that was built from the ground-up, progress and in-game purchases aren’t able to transfer over. Those who don’t fancy starting from scratch can now return to the first-generation Battle Royale.

Activision relaunched Warzone 1.0 as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera on Monday November 28, 2022.

The game remains largely untouched, although there are a few changes. As the new name suggests, Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera now only has a single map (Caldera) and two playlist options – Battle Royale Quads and Battle Royale Solo. No new Battle Pass will be coming to the title, and Activision isn’t providing a way to unlock old Battle Pass content. In other words, if you didn’t unlock something by the time Warzone 2.0 launched earlier this year, you’ll never be able to unlock it. Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera is essentially frozen in time.

If you still haven’t got your hands on the latest entry into the blockbuster Call of Duty franchise, there are some superb deals out there. Regardless of whether you’re looking to buy the game on PlayStation, Xbox or PC – there are some huge discounts already available. See below to slash £15 off the price of this must-have FPS today!