Fanatics Fest is back in NYC and If you look at the title and you were at Fanatics Fest 2026 or watched some of the content at Fanatics Fest 2026 online you might say I’m crazy or that I’m biased. Let me tell you right now, it’s the second one, I’m biased. I say that jokingly of course, but I was at Fanatics Fest 2026 and I walked every part of the Javits Center and I attended a multitude of panels and events all super cool in their own right, and the energy in the building was excitement, fandom and electric.
With that being said there was NO booth that I had more fun being at than the Call of Duty booth. HANDS DOWN. All of the excitement at the Call of Duty booth this year was in celebration for the newest entry, Modern Warfare 4 and with that, everybody came out to celebrate to pick up the sticks or mouse and keyboard and get it on.
This event was packed with celebrities and athletes including New York’s very own 2026 championship Knicks team members Karl Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and the captain himself Jalen Brunson. This was the highlight of the COD game day to me but there was more. It was hosted by Hot 97’s The Kid Mero and he made it entertaining and brought the fun like only a true New Yorker can.
NBA ROTY Cooper Flagg was in the building facing off with Jeremiah Love in a 10 v 10 battle or GRUDGE MATCHES in MW4 which was in fact the point of that booth. It was hosted by Hot 97 and 7PM in Brooklyn’s own Kazeem Famuyide and it was all about PvP and getting a feel for the new COD entry and facing off against friends and it was action packed and a ton of fun and each day we got a new celebrity or athlete coming through to show some skill.
Inde Navarette the actress from the breakout movie of the year Obsession stopped by and got on MW4 and caught a few kills and was right at home, considering she was a COD streamer up till recently. She was also gifted a rare copy of Modern Warfare 2 from 2009 for the XBOX 360 and she was hyped. All in all, good times at the COD booth.
Kevin Durant and the dev of Modern Warfare 4 (Mark Grigsby), Inde Navarette, Tyler Bahl and the director of the Call of Duty movie Peter Berg came and hung out for the Culture Panel and talked about the history of COD, its personal meaning to them and overall cultural significance in gaming.
A time was had at the Call of Duty booth. I spent a majority of my time there even though Fanatics Fest is an incredible experience overall. The Call of Duty booth was always jumpin. They had a night vision booth. A swag area for goodies. A special tank style car due to their special sponsorship with Aston Martin. It was just a vibe. I don’t if there will be another COD Modern Warfare next year but I hope so, that way I can have that experience again. Shoutout to everyone at Activision and Call of Duty for the incredible experience
