Cheap Call of Duty Black Ops 2: the multiplayer catch

Type cheap Call of Duty Black Ops 2 into a search box and you will get a wall of key resellers quoting you a fraction of the Steam price. The keys are usually real. The problem is what you are buying them for.

Most people hunting a cheap Call of Duty Black Ops 2 licence in 2026 are not after the campaign. They want the multiplayer, or they want Zombies, and they remember both being busy. That memory is fourteen years old, and the numbers have moved a long way since. Here is what our own price and player record shows, and which Call of Duty is the better buy at the money.

Two Black Ops 2 entries, and why the cheap one looks cheaper

The first thing to sort out is that our database carries this game twice. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the Steam-linked entry, tied to the official 2012 release from Treyarch and Activision. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a second listing that collects keyshop offers.

That split is not unique to this game, and it is worth understanding generally: a listing made up entirely of reseller offers will often show a lower headline number than the Steam-linked one, because it is quoting a different set of sellers rather than a different product. Compare both pages before you decide anything. Our guide to whether keyshops are safe covers what separates a legitimate reseller from one worth avoiding, and region-locked Steam keys explains the single most common way a cheap key turns out to be unusable.

Black Ops 2's near-future setting was a genuine swing in 2012, and the campaign's branching structure still has few imitators. (Official Steam screenshot)

What our price record shows

Our continuous tracking of the Steam-linked entry runs from 18 June 2026 to today, 16 September 2026 — about three months of readings, so treat it as a recent snapshot rather than a lifetime history.

Across that window the game has moved a long way between its high and its low, and the current figure sits near the bottom of the range rather than at it. The more telling detail is the top of the range: this is a game from November 2012 whose list price still sits where a modern mid-tier release would. Call of Duty titles are notorious for never cutting their official number, and Black Ops 2 is a clean example — the discounts come from sales and resellers, never from Activision revising the sticker.

Check the live figure on the Black Ops II game page rather than trusting any number quoted in an article, this one included. If you want the background on what a genuine floor looks like, our explainer on historical lows is the piece to read first.

Why cheap Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is the wrong thing to search for

Here is the part that should change your mind, and it is the reason this article exists.

When we checked on 16 September 2026, Black Ops II had roughly 150 people playing it concurrently on PC. That is not zero — you will find a match at peak hours, and the community that remains is committed. But set it next to its own siblings and it looks thin. At the same moment, Call of Duty: Black Ops had more than twice as many concurrent players, World at War had comfortably more, and Modern Warfare 2 (2009) had more as well.

Three older Call of Duty games, all released before Black Ops 2, all busier on PC than it is. If multiplayer is the reason you are buying, that ordering matters more than the price does.

The 2012 multiplayer reveal, from the official Call of Duty channel. The pick-ten create-a-class system it shows off is still the series' best loadout design.

The review scores point the same way

This is not just a population question. Black Ops II holds 86% positive on Steam and a Metacritic score of 74 — respectable, but the weakest of the four games in this comparison.

Black Ops sits at 91% positive and 81 on Metacritic. World at War is at 92% and 83. Modern Warfare 2 (2009) leads the group at 93% positive and 86. The game people most often go looking for cheap is, by both the critical and the player measure, the least well regarded of the set — and at the moment two of those better-reviewed games are cheaper than it is.

The campaign's branching missions and Strike Force levels are the strongest argument for buying Black Ops 2 specifically. (Official Steam screenshot)

Modern Warfare 2 (2009) leads this group on both review scores and current PC population. (Official Steam screenshot)

So when is Black Ops 2 still the right buy?

Two cases, and they are real ones.

The first is the campaign. Black Ops 2's story is the most structurally ambitious in the series — genuinely branching, with choices that carry through to multiple endings, and Strike Force missions that hand you a squad and let you fail forward. Nothing else in Call of Duty has tried this, before or since. If that is what you want, no other entry substitutes for it.

The second is Zombies. Tranzit and its companion maps are divisive, but Origins is widely held to be among the best Zombies maps ever built, and the mode has a depth the campaign does not hint at. If a friend already owns it and you want to play together, buy Black Ops 2 and ignore everything above.

What does not hold up is buying it cheap as a general-purpose multiplayer shooter, on the assumption the lobbies will be full. They are fuller elsewhere, for less.

Zombies, not the deathmatch playlists, is what keeps the remaining PC population coming back. (Official Steam screenshot)

Origins and its companion maps are the reason a committed Black Ops 2 community still exists on PC. (Official Steam screenshot)

What to check before you pay

Four things. Compare both of our Black Ops 2 listings, because the cheaper headline is often a different seller set rather than a better deal. Confirm the key is not region-locked away from where you actually are. Check the live player count if multiplayer is your reason for buying. And look at what World at War and Modern Warfare 2 cost on the same day — more than once this year, they have been cheaper.

If you are simply after a shooter rather than this shooter, our roundup of FPS games currently on sale is a broader net. And for a cautionary tale about a "cheap" listing that turns out not to be the product you assumed, the Cheap XCOM Enemy Within case is the same lesson in a different genre.

Bottom line

Buy Black Ops 2 for the campaign or for Zombies with a friend, and buy it on a sale rather than at the standing list price, which Activision has never revised downward and shows no sign of revising now.

Do not buy it cheap expecting busy multiplayer. On PC in September 2026, Black Ops, World at War and Modern Warfare 2 all have more people playing, all review better, and two of the three currently cost less. The cheapest Call of Duty key is rarely the best one.