How to Change Your Call of Duty Region The Easy Way

Maybe you’re sitting around, waiting for matches that never come because your region just doesn’t have that many Call of Duty players. Or maybe you’re playing very late at night. Or you just want to play with some friends in other parts of the world, and you need a way to make that easy, and simple, because the COD game you’re playing doesn’t have a region picker, or server browser.

Heck, maybe you just want to get some bot lobbies to grind out your daily missions, because those can be a lot harder to do against the sweatier human opponents, especially in Warzone, where one slip-up can send you into a long wait before you can play again. Whatever the reason, you need a way to change your region in COD, and the game itself isn’t going to make it easy.

Well, that’s where PIA VPN comes into the picture. A few minutes of setup — with a bit of router configuration if you play on console — and you can get into the game in any part of the world. It’s actually as easy as the three steps listed below:

Everything You Need to Know About Changing Your Region in Call of Duty

On PC, the three steps above are pretty much the whole process for any COD game. That’s it, you’re done, have fun with it! For console players, you’ll need a little something extra:

How to Change Your COD Region on Console With a VPN

Xbox and Playstation consoles (and the Switch, for that matter) don’t support installing VPN apps on the consoles themselves. So, for Call of Duty players who don’t have a PC, getting a VPN up and running will require two of three things: a VPN-enabled router, a PC, or a smartphone.

First up, the router: a lot of router models come with the ability to connect to VPN networks with a little configuration. All you need to do is go into the router’s settings page via your browser on a PC or smartphone — hence “two of three things” — and configure it to use PIA’s servers. If you have the right kind of router, it should only take a few minutes to set up. The last step is to connect to a server in your chosen region and start playing.

If you don’t have the right kind of router, you can ask your internet service provider for an upgrade, or see our guide to the best VPN routers for some ideas of what to get. 

Getting a new router isn’t an option for everyone, though. In that case, you can turn your PC or smartphone into a router in a pinch. For best results, a PC or Mac with two Ethernet ports works best, so you can connect your console to the computer with a cable. Then, you can download the PIA app on Windows, Mac, or Linux and share your VPN connection to route the console’s internet traffic through PIA’s servers. Just pick the server you want in the app on your PC, then start up the game on your console.

If your computer doesn’t have a spare Ethernet port, you can use a wireless hotspot. This is something of a last resort, as Wi-Fi isn’t always reliable, but it’ll work in a pinch. Again, download the PIA app on your PC or phone, connect to the VPN server of your choice, set up a wireless hotspot, and connect the console to that hotspot.

What About the Region Selector in Battle.net?

Keen-eyed and experienced users of the Battle.net app have probably noticed the small dropdown menu near the install/play button, which ostensibly allows you to choose between playing in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For those who haven’t seen it, it looks a little something like this:

Well, that menu does work for a lot of Activision-Blizzard games, but it’s notoriously ineffective for Call of Duty titles. Whether it’s a bug, or it was never intended to work is unknown. All we know is that it’s not a reliable way to change servers, and you’re better off with a VPN.

Where Are Call of Duty’s Servers?

As mentioned above, you get the best results by choosing a VPN server that’s close to the game server you want to play on. This minimizes the distance your signal has to travel to get to the game server and back, thus keeping your ping as low as it can be.

To that end, here’s a handy list of server locations that are currently used by Black Ops 6, and the Warzone seasons associated with it. 

Server locations for other COD games may vary slightly, depending on how old they are, but the general locations for the US, Europe, and Asia should be the same.

North America (all in the US)

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Columbus
• Dallas
• Miami
• New York
• Salt Lake City
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• St. Louis

South America

• Sao Paulo

Europe

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Dublin, Ireland
• Frankfurt, Germany
• London, UK
• Madrid, Spain
• Milan, Italy
• Paris, France
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Warsaw, Poland

Africa

• Johannesburg, South Africa

Asia

• Hong Kong
• Qatar
• Seoul, South Korea
• Singapore
• Tokyo, Japan

Australia

• Sydney

Other Benefits of Using a COD VPN

Now I’ve written at some length about changing your region, but that’s just one thing that a VPN can do for you as a gamer, especially in fast-paced games that require even faster reflexes. A VPN can stabilize your connection to reduce lag spikes, and that’s especially important if you’re playing on a server that’s far away from you.

In some cases, a VPN can actually reduce your ping outright. How does this work? Well, a good gaming VPN will use the fastest route between you and the VPN server of your choice. This is important because congested networks between you and the game server, bad signal routing, and randomly misconfigured servers in your ISP’s data center, can cause a lot of lag.

Routing your traffic through a VPN server close to the gaming server can essentially bypass those problems, creating a faster connection, and reducing high ping that’s caused by those issues. Again, this is great for connecting to gaming servers over long distances.

A VPN can also allow you to game in situations where it would otherwise be unsafe or impossible. The VPN encrypts all traffic between you and the VPN server, which helps to keep you safe on any network, but especially when you’re using public Wi-Fi. 

Another important VPN feature is IP address masking, which protects you from getting hit by DDoS attacks and adds a layer of anonymity to your online activities. Combined with encryption, it helps you to bypass ISP game traffic throttling and get around network blocks on games at work or school. 

Why PIA Is the #1 VPN for Gaming

With VPN server locations in over 90 countries, PIA gives you a stable, smooth connection to any region you want to play in.

The servers are designed for speed, handling mountains of data in milliseconds. They’ll easily keep up with the new omni movement in Black Ops 6, your flick shots, your trick shots, and everything else you might want to do in game, without causing lag.

For those who have security on the brain, PIA offers a proven no-logs policy, DDoS attack mitigation built into every server to prevent lag, and powerful encryption with multiple protocols to choose from. There’s also a handy kill-switch to keep your data from ever leaking on public Wi-Fi.

PIA is also great for Xbox and PlayStation players, as it’s compatible with VPN-enabled routers. It has apps for the most popular devices, meaning it’s a great option if you’re using your PC or phone as a hot spot. And if you have any trouble setting any of this up, there’s 24/7 support via live chat and email to get you back to your games as quickly as possible.

You can try it all out risk-free with PIA’s 30-day money back guarantee. Give it a shot, and see how it can improve your every gaming session.

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