Here's when you can preload Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

With the launch date of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 looming, fans of the series are most certainly wondering what the preload times are for the game on their chosen platform. Activision typically allows preloads a few days before the official launch, and the game launches on October 25. That’s next week Friday, so it would be reasonable to assume that the preloads will open up next Monday.

Thanks to Activision’s most recent Call of Duty blog post, the preload times for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 have been confirmed, and they’re exactly when you’d probably expect them to be. They start at the beginning of next week. That should give everyone who has pre-ordered the game plenty of time to get the installation finished and be ready for when the game becomes playable.

That being said, there are some caveats to make note of. Specifically when you’ll be able to play if you pre-ordered vs when you can play if you didn’t. In addition to how big the installation file for the game will be.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 preload times begin on October 21

If you pre-ordered the game you’ll be able to preload it starting on October 21 at 9AM Pacific Standard Time. That’s a few days before the game will go live for players who pre-ordered as well. In terms of official launch times, the game will go live on PC via Steam and Battle.net at 9PM Pacific Standard Time on October 24.

If you want the chance to play earlier, then you’ll want to pick up the game on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or PC via the Microsoft Store. The game will officially go live between 4AM and 11PM Pacific Standard Time on October 24. Times are based on region since the launch is on a regional rollout. So if you live on the West Coast, for example, you’ll probably have the chance to play first. You’ll also be able to play the game through Xbox Cloud Gaming.

PC players will need 102GB of available storage space at launch

Activision doesn’t list the install size for Xbox or PlayStation. It does list the install size for PC players along with the minimum and recommended specs. Across the board, PC players will need to have 102GB of free storage space for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at launch. This is lower than usual compared to past games. It’s part of Activision’s plan to reduce the amount of storage requirements needed for future Call of Duty titles.

Outside of the storage, Activision recommends at least 12GB of RAM. As well as an Intel Core i7-6700K or the AMD equivalent. For the GPU you need an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or the RTX 3060 or the AMD Radeon RX 6600XT. The GPU will also need at least 8GB of VRAM. For competitive or 4K, you need at least an Intel Core i7 8th Gen. The GPU for these settings needs to be an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT. You can check out the full PC spec requirements list in the image below. Naturally, you’ll also want to make sure your drivers are updated accordingly.