Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer free to play for a week

Activision is opening up select Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer playlists to anyone who doesn't own the full game.

In celebration of the new Season One launch, and the holidays, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has kicked off a week-long free multiplayer promo.

For a full week: Thursday, December 17 to Thursday, December 24, select multiplayer playlists will be available to play for everyone, regardless of whether or not they own the full game.

This promotion has already gone live, available on all platforms. Activision is splitting the week into two stages. The first stage ends on Monday, December 21 and offers Team Deathmatch, Domination, the recently added 2v2 Gunfight, the Nuketown Holiday 24/7 playlist, and the Raid the Mall playlist featuring the two new Season One maps.

The second stage of this free access takes place later on Monday, and goes on until the end of the free week on Thursday. Everything from the first stage will continue to be available, but you'll also now get Prop Hunt, Combined Arms: Harpoint, and Fireteam: Dirty Bomb. The good news is that there are no map restrictions across both stages, so you shouldn't get kicked out of matches.

To sweeten the deal, Black Ops Cold War will also be hosting double XP and double weapon XP, beginning today and until Monday. From December 22-28 double Battle Pass tier progression kicks in.

To play the free week on PlayStation, you'll need to first have Warzone installed, and find the activation token through the in-game franchise store. This unfortunately means you'll have to download some hefty GBs. Things are a little easier on Xbox, where you just need to find Black Ops Cold War Free Access in the store. On PC, just download Battle.net and you'll see a 'Try it for Free' option.