The Weirdest Glitches In Call Of Duty History

Video games are massive marvels of coding and technology, requiring precision and organization for everything to come together for release. However, many things slip through the cracks due to the sheer size of various projects. Despite being a massive AAA franchise, "Call of Duty" isn't immune to glitches occasionally making into the games. Many game-breaking bugs and glitches have frustrated players since the series' first installment. Between giving some players an unfair advantage, messing with other players' gameplay, or being a general nuisance, some of these glitches have grown notorious in the "Call of Duty" community. In particular, multiplayer glitches will live in infamy for those who had the chance to see them in a live lobby.

Although many bugs in "Call of Duty" can be exploited for nefarious purposes, not all of them are harmful to the game as a whole. Some glitches can produce hilarious graphical and audio effects, or allow players to explore unintended locations. These glitches can give players a fun investigation into the inner workings of the game, without hindering the experience of other players. Here are a handful of "Call of Duty" glitches that might give you both a healthy dose of nostalgia and residual annoyance.

First up is a glitch that gives players a bit of an advantage that can catch unsuspecting opponents off-guard. This Last Stand glitch has appeared in multiple "Call of Duty" games and allows the player to use a primary weapon or grenade while the Last Stand perk is active. Under normal circumstances, players would only be able to use their sidearms in this situation, giving them a nominal fighting chance while they're downed. With a primary weapon, players get a much better shot at revenge-killing enemies, though some counter-play is still possible. Namely, if players notice the large primary weapon out while Last Stand is active, they may use a flashbang to cover their escape. 

Besides being frustrating, the Last Stand glitch is also pretty odd from a visual standpoint. Players taking advantage of the glitch look unnatural wielding a large weapon as they would normally grip their secondary pistol. Though some players may still feel like this glitch ruins their gaming experience, at least it's funny to look at. It's worth noting that "Modern Warfare 2" and its direct sequel also included the Final Stand deathstreak, which basically made this glitch into an actual gameplay mechanic.

While the Last Stand glitch is a bit situational and only provides a small window of advantage, the Snake glitch "Call of Duty" arguably completely breaks the multiplayer experience. This glitch is particularly infamous in the "Call of Duty" community, appearing multiple times throughout the series. Originating in "Call of Duty 3," the Snake glitch allows players to lay prone and still move at max running speed.  Under normal circumstances, the restricted mobility of being prone helps offset the perk of keeping a low profile. However, using the Snake glitch lets you quickly approach enemies with a smaller hitbox, making you hard to hit or spot even for the most eagle-eyed players.

While this is no doubt a frustrating bug on its face, much like the Last Stand glitch, the Snake glitch is a visual spectacle that is sure to at least give you a laugh before the glitch-abuser takes you out. Watching overly-serious "Call of Duty" Operators crawl across the map at blistering speeds may take some of the sting out of your impending doom.

While the first couple of glitches at least have an element of visual comedy, the next glitch offers only staggering power for the player that pulls it off. The Double Stealth Bomber glitch does exactly as the name describes. In "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," by racking up certain Killstreaks, players can call two Stealth Bombers at the same time for one Killstreak reward, giving them a huge advantage with very little chance of a counter-attack. Players can't do anything other than accept their fates. With one Stealth Bomber dishing out tons of destruction on its own, having two of them definitely feels like overkill.

To perform this "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," players will need to get the Precision Airstrike, Harrier Airstrike, and Stealth Bomber Killstreaks. If players time things just right and earn the right number of kills with each Killstreak, two bombers should be called rather than one. This glitch may be a bit unfair in the end — but if someone manages to pull it off, at that point, they almost deserve the victory.

While the last few entries could be used to help players win the day, some glitches are just detrimental to the unwitting players that they impact. One of these bugs is the No Weapon glitch. As the nickname implies, this annoying bug from the original "Modern Warfare 2" will take away your weapon until you leave the game or die. This glitch has a chance of activating if a player dies while entering the weapon select screen. Despite ruining a match, it's at least another bug with a funny visual element: When firing their missing weapon, character models will look as if they are repeatedly swapping weapons.

A new version of this glitch has plagued gamers in the remake of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." Players have theorized that this glitch may have been inadvertently created when the devs removed a duplication exploit, but this has not been confirmed. Sadly, this version of the bug doesn't come with any humorous visuals and simply leaves many players frustrated. Players on the "Call of Duty" subreddit continue to call for a fix for this glitch whenever it pops up, noting that it's extremely annoying to load in with nothing to defend themselves.

Glitching a character out-of-bounds can allow players to explore locations beyond the normal boundaries of the map. One classic example comes from the original "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." By loading up a Capture-The-Flag game and choosing a class with Tactical Insertion, Dead Silence Pro, and an Osprey Gunner, players can summon the Osprey Gunner to make their way outside of the map. 

However, though out-of-bounds glitches may seem harmless at first, getting to these unintended locations can also give players a tactical advantage over others. By getting into well-hidden or high-up locations, players can get the upper hand in a way the developers never could have foreseen. This is technically cheating, but some argue that the amount of effort and skill it takes to reach some of these locations means that players who find these spots have earned the edge. Other players just like to use these glitches to really take in the sights and enjoy the beautiful maps built by the devs.

took some pictures with this out of bounds glitch
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u/DHyperOnYT in
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Another notorious and game-breaking glitch comes from "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2." This exploit — which can be triggered by tricking someone into looking at your playercard while the round is changing over — will cause players to freeze in place, unable to move or shoot, basically removing them from the game. The only thing that these players can do is view the scoreboard or simply abandon the match. Out of any glitch covered so far, this is one of the most notorious, and simply ruins the game for victims. Some devious players have taken to creating trolling compilations showing the Freeze glitch being unleashed on unsuspecting opponents.

No matter your stance on the morality of this glitch, it is interesting to note just how large of an oversight the Freeze glitch was, and how much of an impact it had on the community. This glitch sparked many debates in the community over messing with players using this glitch was harmless fun, or something that ruins the integrity of  "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2." While one player may view this as a perfect prank, others look down on this kind of intensive griefing.

Moving to a more niche bug that has more of a neutral effect on players, we have the Airborne Challenge glitch. This one impacts multiple games in the series, including "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," "Call of Duty: World at War," and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." While it can be an extremely difficult task to take out enemies in mid-air, the Airborne Challenge glitch makes it far easier to pull off. In multiple places, players can clip on the edge of oddly-placed pieces of map geography, allowing them to stick themselves in midair and float above the surface. This then allows for the easy completion of the Airborne Challenge.

While this glitch isn't the most interesting example on the list, finding easy ways to complete difficult challenges is helpful for all players, and doesn't really detract from other players' experiences. Plus, watching the soldiers floating in midair as they crouch in position is undeniably fun. 

This one is semi-useless and not really exploitable at all, but it can be pretty fun. When playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2," players have noticed strange audio bugs that wildly distort just about every noise in the game, and it can only be fixed by players shutting down their games. For the most part, this glitch turns all sounds into a crunchy static that is bound to hurt players' ears. Additionally, some players have reported hearing the voice lines of various characters getting mixed in with the various demonic sounds. Outside of sound effects, however, player voices still remain unchanged, making the glitched sounds even more disorienting.

Many players have found this random glitch to be creepy and unsettling. Showing off their clip of the bug, YouTuber TheRelaxingEnd quipped, "I don't know how this bug happened but it sure was creepy!" With very little forthcoming info on the cause, this "Call of Duty" glitch may be one of the eeriest the series has to offer.

Similar to out-of-bounds glitches, sometimes "Call of Duty" players can find themselves jammed in precarious situations after merging with various pieces of the map. For instance, while playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War," one player found themselves trapped in a peculiar spot after performing a finishing move on a set of stairs. After taking out their opponent, this player found themself stuck under the stairs (which are now see-through) and unable to leave. The player could presumably leave if they were able to respawn, though the video ends before they're able to escape. 

Found an glitch @ NukeTown (Call of duty cold war) Finishing move on stairs.
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u/RholynSelsig in
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Though this particular glitch was initially performed in Nuketown '84, it's not the only time a player has become one with their surroundings. Searching through Reddit will yield dozens of videos of players clipping through their surroundings and getting trapped. One "Modern Warfare 2" player similarly got stuck in a wall while doing a stealth takedown of a guard. These are just two examples of this widespread and strange phenomenon.

I got stuck in the wall taking out a guard, game instantly saved a checkpoint and I kept respawning stuck under water... Why can't I choose a previous checkpoint? Had to restart the mission, and it took a good while to get here..
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u/ra1nasu in
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Moving back to notorious glitches that terrorized "Call of Duty" lobbies during their heyday, we have the Javelin glitch. This glitch will allow players to employ the Javelin in "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" in an impossible-to-counter way. To use the Javelin, players normally need to lock onto a vehicle or map location and then fire a slow-moving rocket. This rocket will travel in an arcing pattern, flying high into the air before landing at its target. Using this exploit, players instead detonate the Javelin at their feet. While this takes the player character out with the rocket's massive splash damage, it can also easily take out multiple enemies as well.

This exploit was quickly patched out, but it was a game-breaking experience during the initial release of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." Players still remember the chaotic fun that this glitch brought about, with one player calling it "a limited time offer where you could have the guilty pleasure fun for about a week or 2 before [Infinity Ward] patched it." This just goes to show that even the most frustrating bugs can make for a hilariously memorable moment.

Killstreaks are a major boon in "Call of Duty" matches, so naturally there are more than a few bugs that allow players to abuse them. Similar to the Javelin glitch, the Infinite Care Package glitch also terrorized the early days of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." With a perfect bit of timing, "MW2" players can prevent the completion of an airdrop from a care package, then pick up the goods and summon another. Rinse and repeat, and you have infinite care packages. Players also figured out how to do this when calling in sentry guns, adding to the chaos. Doing this gives nets players infinite Killstreak rewards from the care packages, which in turn means earning a huge edge over the rest of the lobby. 

Exploits like this one and the Javelin explosion glitch helped make the early days of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" feel like the wild west of gaming. Much like the players mentioned in the Javelin glitch, fans also look back on the Infinite Care Package glitch with the same mix of fear and fondness. One player even said they were relieved to learn of the glitch well after the fact: "This brings me satisfaction knowing what was happening all those times I was filled with rage at 'MW2.'"

Heading back to the early days of "Call of Duty," we have a glitch that affects the Capture the Flag mode of "Call of Duty 3." Due to the looser physics engine of the game lacking the polish of more modern entries, using a melee attack on the flag-holder will sometimes cause that player to be launched at a high velocity, flinging them across the map. Generally, the flag-holder will even land unharmed. This can cause a lot of chaos in matches, giving the flag-holder a boost to victory that nobody could have ever expected. That's right; some people will hit their own teammates to send them to where they need to be.

Despite being arguably the most entertaining Capture the Flag glitch in "Call of Duty 3," it was far from the only one. Some players reported clipping through buildings to hide the flag in walls and make it impossible for opponents to counter. Other players have reportedly glitched their way to the top of a tower, making them virtually immune to all attacks.

Zombies have been around in "Call of Duty" for years, but this is another thing entirely. Another harmless visual glitch, the Zombie Walk/Moon Walk bug is a great deal of fun if you can get all the moving parts right. To perform this visual bug, all players need to do is to attempt to hack a camera spike while simultaneously accessing a Sentry Killstreak. After triggering this hilarious glitch, players will walk around like a zombie. Although it doesn't affect gameplay, this glitch is funny way to bring some more enjoyment to a classic game. 

This is definitely one of the more tame glitches in the "COD" franchise, but players love the simple fun that it adds to the game. The best part: While moving forward makes the player walk like a zombie, moving backwards looks more like the classic moonwalk dance, making the glitch even more memorable.

While many of these glitches have left a mark on the "Call of Duty" community, none have had quite the same impact that one airplane glitch did at a "Warzone" tournament. Warzones Airplane glitch had. After redeploying from the Gulag, this hilarious and unexplained glitch caused one player to constantly switch between an airplane and their Operator, essentially making it seem like their character was morphing into a plane. Upon hitting the ground, this glitch caused the entire game to crash. 

Did... he just turn into a plane mid-tournament? 😵‍💫pic.twitter.com/uLSqER2OVM

— Dexerto Esports (@DexertoEsports) December 14, 2021

Though this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, the glitch just happened to be discovered during a huge competition: a $75,000 Twitch Rivals tourney, as a matter of fact. Following the crash, the tournament was postponed. With $75,000 on the line, seeing a glitch like this can be an impossibly annoying setback — but many spectators still found the glitch to be hilarious.

Finally, though the demonic screeching of the distorted sound file bugs may have been creepy, a glitch turning "Warzone" weapons and characters into massive black boxes gives it a run for its money in the fright department. During the fifth season of "Call of Duty: Warzone," players would occasionally be replaced with horrifically stretched black boxes. These players were virtually impossible to take down, as their hitboxes were impossible to discern and they typically consumed the entire screen.

WHAT IS THIS GLITCH IN MW WARZONE?!?!

I LITERALLY COULDN'T FIGHT THE GUY CAUSE HE WAS JUST A BLACK/PURPLE BOX.

WTF LMAO 😂https://t.co/gW4bxxkT08 pic.twitter.com/AqqNNRn19S

— Brady (@YaBoyNamedBrady) August 5, 2020

This glitch seemingly had a simple explanation: Somehow the most recent update had messed up several gun textures, causing them to morph, expand, and flicker as players loaded into matches. Though it didn't cause any massive tournaments to be postponed like some other glitches, seeing this writhing mass of shapes appear and swiftly take you out of the game must have be an upsetting way to end a match.