How long will it take to reach Max Level in Black Ops Cold War?

Liam Mackay
black ops cold war prestige emblems

With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season 4 having 1000 levels to progress through, you might wonder how long that insane grind will take, so a clever Reddit user did the math.

Prestiging has changed quite significantly in the last years in Call of Duty. The traditional system required players to reach a certain Level e.g 55, and then you could Prestige, start from Level 1 again, but have a shiny new emblem to show for it. Whereas now, players can still prestige, but will ascend a gigantic ladder of Levels until they reach Level 1000.

For Prestiging, you earn keys to spend in the shop. These tokens are spent on classic Call of Duty calling cards and emblems such as those from Modern Warfare 2 and the original Black Ops. For the grinders out there, Treyarch has made the max rank Level 1000.

This gives players who level up fast an extra challenge and something to show off, and one brainy Reddit user has figured out how long it will take the average player to hit Level 1000.

How long to hit level 1000 in Black Ops Cold War?

Prestige calling cards in Cold War

Reddit user SorraDude’s reasoning is that “an average player can achieve about 15,000-20,000 XP per match, depending on the game mode and length.” They rounded this number up to 20,000 to account for challenges.

Reddit user SorraDude worked out that it will take the average player at least 200 hours, or eight days to reach Level 1000.

“Every rank past “Prestige Master” (Level 200-1000) is about 26,000 XP per level,” they continued. “If the average game lasts about 10 minutes, you’re looking at an average XP per hour of about 100,000 (being very generous).”

According to SorraDude’s calculations, to climb all the way from Level 200 to 1000, you’ll need to earn roughly 20,800,000 XP.

So with SorraDude’s calculations, we can work out that:

20,800,000 (XP required to hit 1000) / 100,000 (XP per hour) = 208

That’s 208 hours, or eight days, to reach the max level in Black Ops Cold War.

Black Ops Cold War prestige shop

SorraDude was being very generous with the amount of XP earned, so think of this number as a minimum rather than the average time it will take.

We have seen plenty of Level 1000 players in our Cold War matches and doubtless, you have too. XP Tokens earned through the Battle Pass, along with the insane amount of XP earned for exfilling from matches of Outbreak will allow players to rank up much faster.

Also, if you play Warzone or Plunder often, this estimate won’t be as accurate. If you have a great game of Warzone with high kills and placement and complete a few contracts, you will earn a ton of XP.

So there are things you can do to speed up progression, but you should be mindful that it will take you at least 200 hours of playtime to reach Level 1000.

Image Credits: Activision / Treyarch