How to join the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta

By Jesse Lennox Updated July 15, 2024

A squad stands together in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. — Activision

A soldier shooting on their back in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. — Activision

This year, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is really pushing the single-player campaign in its marketing. Set in the early 1990s, this story promises all the twists, turns, betrayals, and mind-blowing reveals the series is known for. But for a majority of players, that’s just an afterthought compared to the competitive multiplayer. After the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct showed off the new movement systems and reworked Prestige progression, players are itching to get their hands on the latest and greatest in multiplayer first-person shooter action. October 25 isn’t that far off, but it’s long enough to make the wait agonizing. Like every year, however, Activision is giving everyone the chance to get some matches in before launch with a beta test. Gaining access is easy, but only if you know how.

How to join the Black Ops 6 beta

The Black Ops 6 beta info. — Activision

The only way to reserve your slot in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta is to preorder a copy of the game on the platform of your choice, be it PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, or PC. There are two versions available to preorder via the official Call of Duty site — Standard/Cross-gen and Vault — but it doesn’t matter which one you purchase. Also, if you are a Game Pass subscriber, then you do not need to preorder to join the beta. If you preordered a physical copy, you will get a code that you can redeem at callofduty.com/betaredeem to gain access to the beta when it launches. Digital owners will automatically gain access on their platform.

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The first beta weekend will only be for those who preorder Black Ops 6 and run from August 30 through September 4.

The second beta will be open to everyone regardless of preorder and run from September 6 through September 9.

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Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over four years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…

Gaming

The fastest ways to gain XP in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Kill Order gameplay in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Ever since Modern Warfare, Call of Duty fans have been obsessed with finding every tip and trick they can to level up faster. Now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has arrived with a refreshed Prestige system, the drive to grind levels is again at an all-time high. While everything you do does earn you XP, they are not all created equal. Just like picking your Wildcards or Perks, earning XP as fast as possible takes a bit of thought and planning. If there's a piece of equipment you have your eye on at a high level, or just want to grind through some Prestige ranks as fast as possible, here are the fastest ways to grind XP in Black Ops 6.
Do your dailies

We'll get the most obvious tip out of the way first. Daily challenges are back and work just as they always have. Every 24 hours you will be given a handful of small optional tasks to complete for a heap of bonus XP. These can be things like getting Scorestreak kills, getting Point Blank Kills, and getting kills with a specific weapon type. Most daily challenges are worth 2,500 XP, which is already a nice bonus, but there is also a fourth one that can be worth between 3,000 and 5,000 additional XP. Each day you log on, you should prioritize your daily challenges.
Tailor your loadout and play the objective

Gaming

Xbox Game Pass is getting tons of new games following Black Ops 6 success

A cockpit view in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

We know a lot of you are playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Xbox right now, but the company just announced some games coming to Xbox Game Pass -- specifically the Game Pass Standard tier -- in the first half of November.

The biggest game coming to the service (and we mean that literally) is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Xbox and developers Asobo Studio previously reported that it will have a smaller install size than its predecessor -- 127GB versus 157GB -- but it'll also require 64GB of RAM. All of this is to help stream immense detail to the player as they fly around the world. Asobo says helped it to increase "the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000." Alongside the hyperrealistic graphics is a new career mode where you go through training and missions to become a pilot and a challenge mode where you compete against other pilots. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is coming to Game Pass at launch on November 19.

Computing

The best PC settings for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is the latest in a long line of high-paced shooters, and like its predecessors, it brings with it not only a new campaign and multiplayer features but enhanced graphics too. Although upgrading your graphics card or processor is always a great way to boost performance in new and demanding games, you can also have a big impact by adjusting its settings to the best ones for you and your PC.

However, even if you’re the most competitive player, you won’t want to just turn all the settings off to maximize your frame rate. You still need clarity to make out your opponents at distance, and what’s the point of playing the latest Call of Duty, if you can’t enjoy some of its new visual flair?