Call of Duty Warzone’s battle pass weapons have had a track record of being rather good, but there are few in recent memory that have taken over quite like the Marco 5 SMG. Warzone Season 4, and the introduction of the Marco 5, was less than a week ago, but already the versatile submachine gun has become a key element in the current Warzone meta.
According to weapon usage stats from WZRanked, the Marco 5 has just overtaken the MP40 and is currently the most used SMG in Warzone. The Marco 5 is appearing in just under 8% of players’ loadout drops. This also makes it the second most popular gun in the entire game, beaten only by the NZ-41, which has become the staple long-range AR for the start of Season 4.
So why are so many players making a Marco 5 Warzone loadout for their close-range slaying in Caldera or new map Fortune’s Keep? Well, there’s a few reasons.
For a start, the Marco 5 is unlocked at just level 15 in the Season 4 battle pass, so many players will have already obtained it. But we always get an easy to unlock weapon each season, so what makes this one so extraordinarily popular right off the bat?
Well, it has the ability to be made dual-wield thanks to its Akimbo proficiency. Akimbo weapons have a bit of a tendency to be overpowered (you all remember the Sykovs, right?) and the Marco 5 is no different.
While running two of them is great, the Marco 5 is just as powerful when you’ve got one of them. Thanks to a high base movement speed, and a recent buff to Vanguard attachments that turn you into an Olympic sprinter, you can zip around the map with ridiculous speed.
It’s clear that these benefits are being translated into results too. WZRanked’s data suggests the Marco 5 is the fourth and fifth best gun in terms of overall K/D ratio and win rate, respectively.
The Marco 5 might be one of the best Warzone guns right now, but Raven Software has recently made a habit of clamping down on overpowered weapons more quickly than it used to. Expect some sort of nerf to the lightning-fast SMG, and the dependable NZ-41, in the near future.