How to play the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 open beta

Bullets will fly in Call of Duty again, and to get a sneak peek at what to expect for the full release of the latest title, a Black Ops 6 beta beckons for early testing.

Another year, another Call of Duty. Four years after Black Ops Cold War, Treyarch is back again with Black Ops 6. Promising political power struggles and the return of round-based Zombies, the latest entry in the Black Ops series should be huge, as is usually the case for the long-running FPS franchise.

If all this excitement wasn’t enough, you can play Black Ops 6 early courtesy of a closed and open beta, and we have all the details you’re after below.

How to play the Black Ops 6 beta

To gain access to the Call of Duty Black Ops 6 early access beta, you need to pre-order any digital edition of the game or subscribe to select Xbox Game Pass plans. To play the open beta, you only need to download it from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Steam, or Battle.net store when it goes live.

Black Ops 6 beta dates

The early access pre-order beta for Black Ops 6 begins on Aug. 30, and the open beta begins on Sept. 6, so if you don’t get early access, you can wait until the following week to play the beta when it’s free for everyone.

If you are to pre-order, it doesn’t matter which edition you opt for. If you pre-order the game digitally, you can guarantee access to the open beta. We know Black Ops 6 is a first for the franchise as it is included with Game Pass from day one.

Given the Microsoft and Activision merger, this should come as no surprise. It could well be a business decision made with each subsequent Call of Duty game in the future, as Microsoft has the power to do so.

Check out more news about the Black Ops 6 release, including news of the old Prestige system returning and the first-time addition of multidirectional diving.