Does Xbox Cold War Progress Carry Over to PC?

The short answer is yes, your Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War progression does carry over from Xbox consoles to a PC platform like Battle.net or Steam. However, there are specific requirements around linking your Activision account across platforms to enable cross-progression.

As an avid COD player myself across both console and PC with over 15+ days of playtime, I‘ll provide a comprehensive look at how the system works based on official details from Activision and my own experiences managing account progress across different platforms.

What Transfers Between Xbox and PC

When you link your Activision account properly, here are the key stats and unlocks that will transfer over from Xbox to PC:

• Multiplayer/Zombies Stats
  • Level
  • Total kills
  • Kill/death ratio
  • Time played
  • Weapon levels
  • Unlocked camos
  • Custom mod unlocks
• Battle Pass
  • Battle Pass tier progression
  • Unlocked Battle Pass content (for use in Cold War/Warzone)

Based on official details from Activision and my own testing, essentially all aspects of your competitive multiplayer and Zombies progression will carry over to PC. Things like your level, weapon camo unlocks, Battle Pass progression and more will seamlessly transfer over with a properly linked account.

This allows you to pick up right where you left off with weapons, camo challenges, custom mods and everything else you put hours into unlocking without having to start from Level 1 again on PC.

What Doesn‘t Transfer Platforms

However, there are a couple of key things that do not carry over when switching between Xbox and PC:

• COD Points – Any COD Points you purchased on Xbox will stay locked to that Xbox account only. COD Points do not transfer across platforms.
• Campaign Progression – Your progress through the single player campaign does not transfer over to other platforms. You‘ll have to start the campaign over from the beginning.

Outside of those two exceptions though, everything else in Black Ops Cold War ties to your Activision account and will transfer over to any platform you play on.

Breakdown of Call of Duty Players by Platform

To understand the ecosystem Cold War player progression carries over for, here‘s a quick breakdown of the player base size across each platform, according to Activision‘s recent earnings reports:

You can see that PlayStation represents nearly half of all Call of Duty players, but there is still a sizable number spread across Xbox and PC. Enabling cross-progression allows players to switch between platforms while retaining their unlocks.

And these players invest dozens to hundreds or even thousands of hours into Cold War progressing weapons, completing challenges and more – no one wants to lose all of that work when swapping to a new platform!

How The Cross-Progression System Works

Behind the scenes, here is a quick overview of how your progress is able to sync across Xbox, PlayStation and PC:

• Progress is tracked per user by a unique Activision account ID
• Stats, unlocks, etc. are stored in Activision‘s servers, linked to your account
• When you play on Xbox, PlayStation Network or Battle.net, your progress pulls from your Activision account
• New progress then saves back up to the cloud tied to your account

So regardless of what device you play on, you‘re pulling the same account data from Activision‘s servers. This allows you to hop between platforms while accessing the same pools of progress and customization items.

The only requirement is that you link your Activision account with your gamertag or gaming profile on each platform to enable this cross-saving functionality.

Step-By-Step Account Linking Process

Speaking of account linking – let‘s walk through that process step-by-step covering both Xbox and PC:

Linking Xbox Live Account

1. On your Xbox console, open Account Settings
2. Select Linked accounts
3. Choose Link other platform
   
4. Enter your Call of Duty account email and password
5. Click Link Account to tie to your Xbox gamertag

Linking Battle.net Account

1. Open Battle.net and log into your account
2. Click your Account Name and choose Linked Accounts from the dropdown
3. Select Link Activision Account, enter your account details and click Link Account
   

And that‘s it! Once your Activision account is tied to both platforms, your progress will automatically carry over between Xbox and PC. Pretty straightforward process overall.

Xbox vs PC – Which Platform is Better for Cold War?

Now that you can freely bounce between Xbox and PC without losing progress, which platform provides the better Cold War experience? Let‘s compare some key factors gamers care about:

PC offers higher performance ceiling and more customization, but Xbox provides a more streamlined experience. It mainly comes down to your setup and input preferences. And again – thanks to cross-progression, switching between the two is seamless.

Perspectives from Various Player Types

Depending on your playstyle and priorities, you may weigh the Xbox vs PC factors differently. Here is how the cross-progression situation impacts some common player archetypes:

• Competitive Players – The higher skill ceiling on mouse and keyboard plus uncapped framerates for minimal input lag lends PC as the optimal competitive platform for those serious about competition. Cross-progression lets players shift to PC without leaving hard-earned unlocks behind.
• Casual Players – Those who just enjoy jumping on for a few hours a week may prefer the simplicity of console. Not having to deal with complex PC settings and the comfort of playing from your couch keeps things accessible.
• Zombies Fans – Zombies enthusiasts will enjoy exploring the new Outbreak mode with increased visual fidelity and higher FPS on PC hardware for more fluid demon-slaying action, while bringing along all those Zombie camos unlocked on Xbox.
• Campaign Players – Since campaign progress doesn‘t carry over, this set of players essentially will need to choose either PC or Xbox for their main playthrough. Replayability is more limited in this area.

As you can see, cross-platform progression caters nicely to a wide variety of playstyles and priorities. Players can shift platforms to match their current gaming interests without starting over from scratch.

How Other Games Handle Cross-Progression

For comparison, here is how several other popular multiplayer games handle account progression and unlocks across platforms:

• Fortnite: Full cross-progression between all platforms
• Apex Legends: Full progress carryover on PC/PlayStation/Xbox but unlocks don‘t transfer to Switch
• Destiny 2: Cross-save enabled with character transfers but DLC content locked per platform

Similar to Call of Duty, all of these games rely on a centralized account system to track player progression. However limitations around content rights and publisher restrictions can still get in the way with certain platform transitions. Luckily Cold War sidesteps most of those issues for seamless swapping between Xbox and PC environments.

Future Implications of Cross-Progression

With Activision confirming that future Call of Duty titles will continue supporting cross-progression, what does this growing trend mean for the franchise?

For one, it provides players the flexibility to switch between platforms at will depending on where their friends play or what kind of experience they want to have. Buying each Call of Duty release on ALL platforms is no longer necessary when progression transfers freely.

Cross-progression also reduces friction in transitioning friend groups over to new platforms for upcoming releases. If the squad moves from Xbox to PC, no one has to ditch their hard-earned unlocks and start fresh.

Overall, this unified cross-platform experience is a huge win for players that will likely keep more users staying invested in the Call of Duty ecosystem long-term. Our weapon levels and camo grinds will happily follow us wherever we go!

Summary – Cold War Progress Crosses Over Between Xbox and PC

Hopefully this guide clarified the cross-progression situation for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War across Xbox and PC platforms. The key takeaways:

• Progress carries over 100% outside of COD Points and campaign completion alone
• You need to link your Activision account properly on each platform
• Performance and customization favors PC but consoles offer accessibility
• Players can freely shift between Xbox and PC based on current preferences
• Several other major games now support cross-progression too
• The feature provides excellent future value to committed COD players

Armed with this intel, you can feel confident hopping on board Cold War whether it be console or mouse and keyboard knowing your operator levels, weapon camos and everything else carries forward. Cross play and cross-saving support ushers in an exciting new era for COD multiplayer accessibility!

Any other questions on keeping your Call of Duty progress unified? Let me know in the comments!