The Call of Duty Vanguard beta has long since concluded, meaning it is no longer accessible. However, the full game was released in November 2021.
Call of Duty: Vanguard wowed fans with the post-World War 2 shooter’s multiplayer offerings. With a new mode in Champion Hill, 20 maps at launch, and new mechanics such as destructible environments, Vanguard multiplayer had a lot to offer.
The ideal place to get hands-on with all of this multiplayer goodness was during the Vanguard beta in September 2021. The beta spanned two consecutive weekends, each allowing a certain group of players, to not only build excitement ahead of the Call of Duty: Vanguard release date, but also help test and refine the game’s multiplayer gameplay before it was properly released into the wild.
Call of Duty: Vanguard beta dates
The Call of Duty: Vanguard beta took place in two stages: September 10-13 and September 16-20, 2021. For each stage, certain groups of players were allowed into the beta, beginning and ending at 10:00 PT/ 13:00 ET/ 18:00 BST.
Vanguard beta codes
To play the first stages of the Vanguard beta, you needed early access codes to enter. There were two ways in which you could get Vanguard beta codes.
The first was simply by pre-ordering the game. Those who pre-ordered any version of Vanguard on PS4 or PS5 were able to get early access codes to enter the beta on September 10. Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC players who preordered any version of Vanguard got early access codes to enter the beta on September 16. You may have forgotten, but Vanguard was released during PlayStation’s exclusivity deal with Activision that gave PlayStation players bonuses, including early access and unique cosmetics that weren’t available to Xbox or PC players.
The second method was to watch the Call of Duty League Championship final between Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra. Those with their CoD accounts linked to their YouTube accounts that watched the final were in with a shot of receiving one of 25,000 codes.
Vanguard beta platforms
The Call of Duty: Vanguard beta had a staggered rollout for players on various platforms. Nevertheless, it was eventually available for players on every platform that Vanguard released on – PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Here is when players on each platform could play the Vanguard beta:
- September 10-13: PlayStation early access beta (code required)
- September 16-17: Xbox and PC early access beta (code required), PlayStation open beta (no code required)
- September 18-20: Open beta on all platforms (no code required)
That’s everything you need to know about the Call of Duty: Vanguard beta. Though it’s long since passed, the beta was a great opportunity for everyone to get hands-on with the game and offer valuable insight to the developers before it was fully released a few months later.