Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is currently one of the most popular games on Steam, yet a recent update disabled the family sharing feature with no notice. Family sharing was enabled for the first three days after Modern Warfare 2 launched on Steam. Activision has provided no reason for the change and the publisher has not made any public statements.
Family sharing allows Steam users to share their gaming library with up to 10 friends. While only one person can play a game at a time, the feature let users earn Steam achievements and play each game as if it was part of their own library. Valve does not disclose how many users are utilizing family sharing, but Steam recently reached a new all-time high for concurrent users of over 30 million players, giving Steam gamers plenty of opportunities to engage in sharing opportunities with friends and family.
SteamDB, a popular website used to monitor activity on Steam, showed that Modern Warfare 2 family sharing was disabled at 12:21 ET on October 31st. The first 72 hours after Modern Warfare 2 launched on Steam showed no issues with family sharing which was fully unlocked and enabled. Certain titles, such as Elden Ring, are region-locked and can only be shared with users in the same region, but Modern Warfare 2 was fully open and enabled. Sales for Modern Warfare 2 have outpaced Vanguard, the previous title, which should be noted is not available on Steam and is still a Battle.net exclusive on PC.
The change to Modern Warfare 2 shows no exceptions in family sharing permissions. Adding to the confusion fans are having over this sudden change is that the exclusion was added in a simple update and not as part of a larger patch. Given the significant number of currently known Modern Warfare 2 bugs and glitches, the first patch is likely to be of significant size already.
Fans of Modern Warfare 2 have taken to social media to discuss the unannounced change, and the responses have been as varied as the user base. Some fans believe the change was made to combat cheaters which was an ongoing issue for Vanguard. Others have taken a more conspiratorial tone and suggested that this change was made after the average gamer's 2-hour refund window on Steam is over. The PlayStation family sharing equivalent is still active which further confuses Modern Warfare 2 fans as for now, only PC users face restrictions.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.