Call of Duty: Mobile is going from strength to strength, and clearly playing its own part in the endless reconfirmation of COD as one of gaming's most powerful franchises.

The mobile shooter has attracted players in their hordes, with millions logging on to enjoy a less draining experience than the mainline console and PC games that still offers adrenaline aplenty. 

Just like Black Ops: Cold War and Modern Warfare before it, COD: Mobile now operates on a seasonal content rotation, but its updates are more regular, coming each month. Season 3 is about to drop, evocatively named Tokyo Escape and bringing a new battle pass to work through, alongside new maps. 

Matt Lewis, VP of Product and General Manager for Call of Duty: Mobile, thinks it epitomises everything his team is aiming for with COD Mobile's seasonal drops. "The battle pass is the best battle pass we've ever had, the characters look fantastic" and he's particularly excited about an unlockable skin for the Bizon SMG that players can equip - "I'm a big fan of the Bizon". 

He doesn't undersell the challenges of keeping up the sort of calendar of content that the game has managed, though - "It is very hard to deliver totally new stuff every month. That's not really just from a creative aspect, but also the production realities of changing things up every four to five weeks. It's really, really, difficult. But we see the way players respond to it. So it's something that we're going to continue with in the future."

That dedication to giving the players what they want has won the game praise from its fanbase, as Lewis alludes to, and it also compares favourably to the slower pipeline of changes for other COD sections, in particular Warzone. 

However, the increasingly tight integration of Warzone and other COD titles doesn't mean that you can expect COD: Mobile to fold into the package anytime soon. They'll continue to promote each other, but COD Mobile tying in to the story or seasons going on in Warzone is still far from a likely prospect.

Another area that's going to be significant for the game moving forward, though, is the continued growth of its esports scene. This is most neatly summed up by the recently announced Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship, which starts on June 3rd 2021, and features a doubled prize pool of over $2 million.

Any player has a chance of qualifying via in-game competition, but the sheer size of that prize money shows how COD: Mobile's popularity is translating into competitive play.  

Lewis is tight-lipped about what's next for the game, after Season 9 is released, as you'd expect, but with new guns and maps being added all the time, it certainly seems like a great time to be playing.