Warzone adds Hot Pursuit and Prop Hunt
- Call of Duty: Warzone’s April 30 Season 03 Reloaded update added Hot Pursuit on Avalon and Prop Hunt Royale on Rebirth Island. - Prop Hunt Royale runs as a 24v24, best-of-five mode, while Hot Pursuit revives Blackout’s cops-and-robbers chase format with Resurgence rules. - The update matters because Warzone is leaning harder into arcade LTMs just as players argue over playlist removals.
Warzone just got two very different kinds of chaos. One is Hot Pursuit — a vehicle-heavy cops-and-robbers mode on Avalon. The other is Prop Hunt Royale — basically hide-and-seek blown up to battle royale scale on Rebirth Island. Both arrived with Season 03 Reloaded on April 30, and both tell you something pretty clear about where Warzone is right now: Activision wants midseason updates to feel like events, not housekeeping. (callofduty.com) ### What actually got added? The headline additions are Hot Pursuit and Prop Hunt Royale. Hot Pursuit takes over the Black Ops Royale playlist slot for the Reloaded window, while Prop Hunt Royale drops players into a big-team hunters-versus-props match on Rebirth Island. The same update (callofduty.com)otice immediately because they change how Warzone feels moment to moment. (callofduty.com) ### What is Hot Pursuit, exactly? It’s the fast, messy version of Warzone. Activision framed it as a throwback to the original Hot Pursuit from Blackout in 2019, but rebuilt for modern Warzone on Avalon. The whole pitch is speed — vehicles matter more, chases are the point, and the mode (callofduty.com)slow looting and more about pursuit, escape, and third parties piling into the same road war. (callofduty.com) ### And what makes Prop Hunt Royale different? Prop Hunt Royale is the sillier experiment, but it’s not tiny or throwaway. It’s a 24v24 mode on Rebirth Island, built around rounds where one side disguises itself as map objects and the other side hunts them down. The official format is be(callofduty.com)by version people remember from past Call of Duty games. (callofduty.com) ### Why put these in Warzone now? Because Warzone’s standard playlists can only carry so much novelty on their own. Reloaded updates are where Activision tends to loosen the tie a bit — more arcade energy, more crossover flavor, more reasons to reinstall or log back in. Hot Pursuit gives(callofduty.com)tor-friendly event. Basically, one mode sells speed and nostalgia, and the other sells shareable nonsense. (callofduty.com) ### Why are players arguing anyway? Because adding modes is only half the story in Warzone — the other half is what gets bumped out. Season 03 Reloaded replaced the Black Ops Royale playlist slot with Hot Pursuit, and that sparked pushback from players who wanted that mode to stay. Co(callofduty.com)players like fresh LTMs, but not when the tradeoff is losing the playlist they actually grind. (callofduty.com) ### Is this a permanent shift? Probably not in the literal sense — these are framed as limited-time modes. But it does look like a design shift in emphasis. Warzone is spending more of its seasonal oxygen on headline LTMs that feel distinct enough to market on their own, instead of just (callofduty.com)n the game is increasingly treating novelty as a retention tool. (callofduty.com) ### So what’s the bottom line? Warzone didn’t just get more content on April 30 — it got two modes that push in opposite directions on purpose. Hot Pursuit is for players who want nonstop motion. Prop Hunt Royale is for players who want absurdity with a scoreboard. The catch is that every flashy new mode reopens the same old playlist fight. (callofduty.com)
