From Thor's Hammer to Santa's Air Strike: The 17 Most Insane Easter Eggs in Call of Duty History

Call of Duty has hidden some genuinely ridiculous stuff inside its campaigns and multiplayer maps over the years, from secret wonder weapons and playable Atari games to Thor's hammer, and even Santa Claus. This countdown sticks to campaigns and traditional multiplayer, no zombies quests and no Warzone bunkers, for the 17 best Easter eggs hidden inside the series.

17. The Zelda and Doctor Who trophies in Call of Duty Ghosts

Call of Duty Ghosts hid a collection of gaming and television references inside the campaign mission Federation Day. Inside one of the offices, players can find several glass trophies, including one containing a rupee from The Legend of Zelda that says it was awarded for cutting bushes and smashing pots. Another trophy looks like the TARDIS from Doctor Who, and there is even one referencing the Mayan Apocalypse.

None of them unlock anything. "They're just small little references or jokes hidden by developers for us players to find if we take the time to look around," and considering most Call of Duty players sprint through every campaign like a CDL contract is waiting at the end, plenty of people never saw these.

16. Secret gridiron balls hidden in Call of Duty WWII's headquarters

Call of Duty WWII's headquarters social space was filled with hidden areas and parkour challenges by Sledgehammer, and the best rewards were several secret gridiron balls hidden around the map. Reaching them required jumping across narrow ledges, climbing onto roof drops and squeezing into places players clearly weren't supposed to reach. Once found, a ball could be carried around and thrown at other players.

This was before movement completely took over Call of Duty, so watching an entire lobby ignore the firing range and repeatedly fall off the same ledge chasing a ball was pretty hilarious.

15. The High Rise rooftop teddy bears in Modern Warfare 2

The original High Rise had one of the most famous secret locations in Call of Duty multiplayer. By jumping onto the crane and carefully moving along its structure, players could reach the roof overlooking the map, and it became a legendary sniping location even though getting there during a real match was pretty hard.

Infinity Ward also placed teddy bears in several of High Rise's hidden and out-of-bounds locations, and those bears became a recurring developer signature throughout the Modern Warfare games. If you managed to escape the intended boundaries of a map, there was a good chance the developers had already been there, and they left a teddy bear behind.

14. The Pied Piper rat cult hidden in a Modern Warfare 2019 multiplayer map

One multiplayer map in the 2019 Modern Warfare contained one of the weirdest Easter eggs in the game. Players first had to locate and shoot five mouse traps hidden around the map, which caused pieces of cheese to appear that then had to be delivered to the correct location. Completing the entire sequence brought a giant Pied Piper statue to life, playing music as an army of rats gathered around it.

There is no secret weapon or game-changing reward here, just an entire cheese delivery operation performed in the middle of a match to summon a rat cult. Modern Warfare was trying to be gritty and realistic, and then it quietly hid this nonsense right inside of it.

13. The giant teddy bear attack on the Station map in Modern Warfare 2019

On the gunfight map Station, players could shoot several hidden stone symbols outside the playable area. Activating the correct sequence caused a massive teddy bear to rise behind the trains, and then military aircraft flew in and attacked it. For a few glorious seconds, Call of Duty turned into a low budget monster movie where the military fought a giant teddy bear while the players just stood there trying to understand what they had activated.

The best Easter eggs reward curiosity, and this one rewarded it with a giant teddy bear under attack from the sky.

12. Santa flying air strikes over Winter Crash in Modern Warfare Remastered

Winter Crash transformed the classic Crash multiplayer map into a Christmas war zone filled with snow, decorations, presents, milk and cookies, and reindeer references. The best addition appeared whenever somebody called in an air strike: instead of normal aircraft, Santa's sleigh flew over the map accompanied by jingling bells and an enthusiastic ho ho ho. Defeated players could also explode into piles of presents during the holiday event.

Call of Duty used to understand seasonal content. There was no $28 Santa operator bundle needed, the man simply appeared, admitted the air strike, and went back to the North Pole.

11. Nuketown's secret Rolling Stones song in the original Black Ops

The original Nuketown established the mannequin tradition before Treyarch started turning those mannequins into nightmare fuel. If players shot the heads off every mannequin quickly enough, Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones started playing throughout the map. The song was already connected to the Black Ops campaign, but hearing it suddenly blast across Nuketown was pretty cool.

It also changed how people looked at every future version of the map. The moment a new Nuketown arrived, players stopped shooting each other and started shooting mannequins instead. Treyarch had trained everyone that if a mannequin had a head, it needed to come off.

10. A hidden Predator watching players from the trees in Modern Warfare 2019

On the gunfight map Hill, players discovered that something was watching them outside the playable area. Hidden high in one of the trees was a dark figure resembling the Predator, complete with its unmistakable glowing eyes. It didn't require an elaborate sequence or reward players with a weapon, it just required stopping long enough to notice the alien hunter once its outline appeared.

Hill was already covered in trees, bushes and players hiding in vegetation, so placing one of the greatest camouflaged hunters in movie history up in a tree was pretty cool, even if, knowing Modern Warfare's visibility, Predator was probably the easiest enemy to actually spot.

9. The Weeping Angel mannequins hidden inside Black Ops 3's Nuketown

Black Ops 3 gave Nuketown two mannequin Easter eggs, but removing all their arms activated the scary one. Once triggered, the mannequins began moving whenever players weren't looking at them. Turn around and everything appeared normal, but look away for a few seconds and turn back, and suddenly they were standing directly behind you.

It was clearly inspired by the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, and it felt even worse for happening inside Nuketown. Emptying a full magazine into them didn't matter, the moment you looked away they started coming again, similar to the Boo ghosts from Mario. Treyarch turned a bright multiplayer map into a survival horror experience using nothing but plastic mannequins.

8. Avenged Sevenfold hijacks the ending of Black Ops 2

Black Ops 2 had multiple serious endings based on the decisions made throughout the campaign, and then after the credits, Treyarch completely broke reality. Menendez and Woods appeared on stage alongside Avenged Sevenfold and performed Carry On, with characters who had died during the story alive again, dancing and playing instruments together as if the entire campaign had been one elaborate music video. Menendez even attacked the lead singer before taking over the performance.

It made absolutely no sense, and that was the point. After finishing one of Call of Duty's darkest campaigns, Treyarch rewarded players with several minutes of pure chaos and fun, and more campaign endings should be willing to be just stupid.

7. Killing Makarov early during Modern Warfare Remastered's most famous mission

This is one of the favorites on this list. Modern Warfare Remastered added a brilliant Easter egg to the classic one-shot one-kill mission. During the assassination attempt on Imran Zakhaev, Makarov can briefly be seen sitting inside one of the vehicles, and if the player shoots and kills him, they unlock the Time Paradox achievement, described as "Kill Makarov and complete your mission."

Doing this technically prevents the events of Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 from ever happening, no airport massacre, no World War III, no Soap dying. Of course, the game immediately resets because you just murdered the future antagonist about 15 years too early.

6. Nuketown 2025 turns into a playable Atari arcade in Black Ops 2

Black Ops 2 turned Nuketown 2025 into a fully functioning arcade. Shooting the heads off every mannequin within two minutes turned the giant population sign in the center of the map into a playable Atari console. Players could then select classics including Pitfall, River Raid, Kaboom and Hero, and these weren't videos or static references, Treyarch placed actual playable Atari games inside the multiplayer map.

You could be in the middle of a team deathmatch while one teammate stood beneath the population sign playing Pitfall, and honestly, that teammate was probably still contributing more than half the random teammates you'd normally get paired with.

5. Thor's hammer hides a second secret inside Black Ops 2's campaign

Near the beginning of the Black Ops 2 campaign mission Celerium, players can leave the normal path and discover a small cave containing Thor's hammer. You can look at it, shoot it and walk around it, but you can't pick it up. For years, most players believed that was the entire Easter egg.

Then the community discovered there was more: completing the opening section stealthily, without alerting the enemies, activates the hammer and grants unlimited ammunition for a launcher weapon, a secret hiding inside another secret. It took years for players to actually connect everything, and discovering that finding the hammer had been hiding another reward the entire time made it one of the coolest Easter eggs in the series.

4. The hidden Thunder Gun tucked inside Black Ops's campaign mission Numbers

During the Black Ops campaign mission Numbers, players could unlock one of Zombies' most iconic weapons. Several hidden Nova 6 canisters had to be shot before interacting with a cassette player, and later in the mission another cassette player could be found near a weapon cache. Activating everything correctly makes the Thunder Gun appear on the wall.

This wasn't a weakened reference or a model sitting behind glass, it could be picked up and used against regular campaign enemies. Suddenly one of the most intense missions in Black Ops became Mason and Clarke launching soldiers across roofs with a weapon that shouldn't have existed, and it's still worth wondering how Clarke got hold of a Thunder Gun in the first place.

3. World at War hides the Ray Gun directly inside its campaign

World at War hid its greatest weapon directly inside the mission Little Resistance. At the beginning of the level, players had to walk through four specific craters along the beach in the correct order, and completing the sequence correctly causes the screen to shake as statues rise from the ground holding ray guns.

This was incredible in 2008 because the ray gun was still a mysterious weapon connected to the newly discovered Zombies mode, and suddenly it could be carried through a regular World War II campaign. There weren't any clues explaining the sequence, someone simply had to decide to stand at every puddle on the beach instead of fighting the war, and it worked.

2. Modern Warfare 2's museum turns into a final battle after one wrong button

Finishing Modern Warfare 2's campaign unlocks a museum filled with characters, vehicles, weapons and scenes from the story, already one of the coolest campaign rewards Call of Duty ever created. Players could walk around, examine character models and pick up weapons without being shot, and then there was a red button marked do not press.

Of course everyone pressed it. The exhibit comes to life and attacks, with characters who had been standing completely still grabbing their weapons and turning the museum into one final battle. Infinity Ward placed practically every enemy from the campaign in one building, gave players access to every weapon, and dared them to start a fight, knowing exactly what they were doing with that button.

1. Escaping the interrogation chair in Black Ops's main menu

The top pick is escaping the Black Ops interrogation chair, an Easter egg hidden right inside the main menu. Alex Mason is physically strapped to an interrogation chair while the menu options appear on a screen in front of him, but repeatedly pressing the triggers lets him break free and walk around the interrogation room.

Inside the room is a hidden computer terminal containing classified documents, emails, secret files, cheat codes, and even the complete text adventure game Zork. Entering another code unlocks Dead Ops Arcade, an entire playable bonus mode hidden inside the menu. Millions of people played Black Ops without ever realizing Mason could escape the chair, and Treyarch didn't just hide one reference or one secret weapon, they hid an entire computer full of lore and two playable games directly behind the campaign menu. That is how you build an Easter egg.