Best VPN to bypass CoD MW3 SBMM and Warzone: Get THREE months FREE

Playing Call of Duty Warzone and Call of Duty Modern Warfare III with one of the best VPNs installed and running in the background unlocks some incredible perks.

Sure, blockbuster online multiplayer games aren’t the first use-case that likely comes to mind when thinking about VPNs, but these popular enterprise apps can alleviate some of the biggest headaches when playing titles like Warzone, Modern Warfare 2, and more.

For example, the best VPN can ensure you load into easier bot lobbies every time (handy for those who want to maintain their KD ratio or who want to rank-up quickly), swerve dreaded SBMM during multiplayer and troublesome lag.

VPNs will also protect Call of Duty players from hackers and other cyberattacks.

With Call of Duty Modern Warfare III set to launch in the coming weeks and Season 5 Reloaded of Warzone available now, there’s never been a better time to invest in one of the best VPN deals to future-proof your experience for the foreseeable.

Of course, these are only the features that relate to Warzone and other Call of Duty titles, but the VPN that you choose will arrive with all of the usual features too, like the ability to stream geo-blocked TV shows, films and sports from any country with your existing Netflix, Disney Plus, Sky Go subscription, encrypt your data, find cheaper flights and hotel discounts …the list goes on.

Sound good? Regardless of whether you’re currently playing Warzone (currently in Season 5 Reloaded), the original Warzone (now rebranded as Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera – but scheduled to close on September 21, 2023), or Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (commonly referred to as CoD MW3) …you should be using a VPN in the background at all times.

That’s because all of these CoD multiplayer experiences enjoy a serious boost when played with a VPN 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. Perhaps even more importantly, these apps let you swerve SBMM and all-but guarantee you always get easy bot lobbies to secure comfortable wins and boost your K/D ratio to 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. 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 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 several 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 Warzone 2 and other CoD titles below, as well as some of the most commonly-asked questions about these apps.

The latest slate of Call of Duty games is as follows –

• Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the latest mainline entry in the best-selling series from Activision, with a single-player campaign, co-op modes, and a packed offering of online multiplayer modes
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be the newest Call of Duty entry that is set to release on November 8. It will also feature skill-based matchmaking.
• Call of Duty Warzone, launched under the title Warzone 2 last year, is the latest edition of the immensely popular battle royale series, which sees 150 players fight it out until only one winner remains. It arrives with a new DMZ mode sees players take on both AI-controlled enemies and rival players to extract prisoners to safety
• Activision still offers the original Warzone …for now. Progress was non-transferable to its sequel, so users who didn’t want to abandon their level-up progress or in-game purchases were able to continue playing on the first-generation Warzone servers. However, this comes to an end on September 21, 2023 so players will need to begin thinking about switching soon
• Preorders are also available for the next entry in the blockbuster franchise, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III, which is set to launch worldwide on November 10, 2023.

All of the above 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, 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, more commonly known as VPN, is an app that creates a secure, encrypted tunnel to shield all of your data whenever you go online. All of your internet traffic is routed via this tunnel – shielding it from prying eyes.

The extra 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 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 MW3 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.

No, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Using a VPN with any Call of Duty game will not get you banned or even “shadow-banned” (the practice of not booting you from the game permanently, but quietly preventing you from appearing in online lobbies).

Using a VPN is not related to cheating or hacking. Crucially, it’s not prevented in Activision’s Terms of Use document, so you don’t need to be concerned about losing access to your Activision online account.

If you’re unfamiliar with “ping”, it’s the number measured in “ms” that sits alongside the names of players on the scoreboard when jumping into an online match in Call of Duty. Ping is a measurement of how fast, stable and accurate your connection to the Activision servers is ahead of a new match. 

Call of Duty monitors the “ms” of each player to ensure that everyone has the best possible experience – reducing lag, stutters in gameplay and crashes. In summary, ping is incredibly important for a slick experience online.

Fortunately, it’s pretty unlikely that running a VPN will have a large impact on your ping.

In some circumstances, running a VPN could impact the peak speed of your network. Multi-hop connections, which re-route all of your internet traffic through two separate VPN locations around the globe can take a toll on speeds. Picking a nearby VPN server – in the same country – should remove any of these problems. If it’s your first time running a VPN with an online experience like Call of Duty Warzone, it’s worth taking the time to run a quick trial-and-error with multiple servers to find which one offers the best speeds.

The VPNs recommended in this guide were picked because of their low-impact on download speeds. This is one of the biggest differentiators between the best VPNs and patchier services or those with restrictions, like free VPNs.

It’s worth noting that VPNs can improve your connection speeds too. If your internet provider throttles your speeds – especially around the most traffic-intensive activities, like gaming – then disguising your internet traffic with a VPN can be a clever way to avoid these penalties and improve overall speed and ping.

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, 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 5 Reloaded – 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 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 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.

Yes, it’s perfectly possible to load into easy or bot lobbies when playing Call of Duty titles online. There are a couple of methods that provide the best chance of success, which we’ve outlined below.

Some of these methods can be a little bit cumbersome, so for most people who want to pick a controller (or mouse) and jump into their next game to quickly rank-up – we’d still recommend a VPN service on-sale, like ExpressVPN. But these tricks can still be incredibly helpful, especially if you want to test the benefits of a bot lobby before subscribing to a VPN service.

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.

There’s no pointing installing two VPNs on your device, since these apps can only connect one at a time. If you’re connected with one VPN, then the other will be redundant …and therefore a waste of money.

If you think that using 2 or more VPNs will make your connection even more secure, you’re on the right track. Multiple VPN services offer something called Multi-Hop connections, which re-route all of your web traffic through multiple VPN servers. This is the closest that you’ll ever come to connecting with two VPNs at the same time and is more secure – especially for those concerned about their current location being revealed, like whistleblowers and journalists.

However, the downside if that the vast distances travelled by your internet traffic as it’s bounced around the globe multiple times can add a lot of lag and delay to your connection, no matter how speedy your download speeds. As such, it’s not something that we’d recommend for anyone playing online multiplayer, like Call of Duty titles, including MW2 and Warzone. 

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!

Activision has confirmed that its next entry in the blockbuster Call of Duty franchise will arrive on November 10, 2023 on Playstation, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The new title will be a direct sequel to the Modern Warfare 2 game launched on current-generation consoles last year, and not to be confused with the game of the same name launched back in 2011.

You can get early access to the game if you pre-order the Vault Editions of the game including the new campaign. Activision Blizzard confirmed that you can get campaign early access to the game on November 2 at 5pm GMT.

Multiplayer will then open up on November 8 or November 10 if you didn’t get the Vault Edition of the game. Below we have got all the best deals for CoD: Modern Warfare III so you won’t miss out.