The Call of Duty series has been running for a long time now, spanning several generations of video game consoles with a brand new game coming out every year. Even in the midst of a pandemic, a new game has been released that is used in the following esports season and helping to form the best Call of Duty players of all time.

With so many years of Call of Duty esports behind us and many more still to come with the conclusion of the 2021 season of the Call of Duty League, it is time to look at everything that has happened and crown the top 10 best Call of Duty players of all time.

I have compiled what I believe is the list of the top 10 best Call of Duty players that you need to know about. Some are retired and will never pick up a controller to compete professionally again, while others are established champs who are still going strong even today.

No matter the status of their career at this point in 2021, they are still among the best that there has ever been. What is important to note, though, before the beginning of this top 10 best Call of Duty players list is that earnings do not necessarily equal the best player around.

It is a very important factor. You cannot be a terrible player and make some of the most money in the business, but it does not always mean that the highest-earning player is the best one. After all, it is a team sport and one that requires true teamwork to earn a championship ring.

Even though earnings do not equal the best around, it does count in making this top 10 best Call of Duty players. However, it is just one of many factors that went into deciding this list. After all, more important than the amount of money are the wins that a player has had.

There is also the player’s overall skill, teamwork skills, how smart they play, talent, raw gunplay power they use, how well they execute their role on the battlefield, versatility, and how they compare to other players in their role.

Winnings certainly did play a role in determining the top 10 best Call of Duty players, but it is only part of it. These are the best players of all time, so you will see ones that I have included from the start of the Call of Duty esports scene through to players who have made waves in recent years.

I have ranked these players in what I think is the top 10 best Call of Duty players list at this point. It is likely to change, especially with newcomers shaping up to surpass the names below based on their performance so far. Without further ado, here are the top 10 best Call of Duty players based on my opinion.

Staring this list of the top 10 players is probably, personally, my favorite Call of Duty player of all time: Attach. Attach is a player who has been around for quite some time, competing against most players on this list.

At this point, Attach has a single world championship that is no joke with 2015’s Advanced Warfare. With the gameplay movement changes that came with Sledgehammer’s first swing at being the main developer on a title, Attach showed that he was versatile and intelligent.

I would argue that Attach is the smartest playmaker on this list. It has shown since 2015 with his top-three finish in 2018 with World War II and then a top-four finish in this most recent season of Cold War in 2021. Attach has arguably found his place with a team this year that fits him better than ever before. I imagine we have not seen the last championship from him, possibly helping him rise in this list over time.

When it comes to Apathy, you have a player who has worked hard throughout his career to improve and rise through the ranks to be one of the only players in the history of the Call of Duty series to have more than one championship title to his name.

For him, much of the grind and results began to show in only the second season of Call of Duty esports to have a championship with Ghosts. He improved and got better over time until finally winning his first ring in 2016 with the fabled Black Ops 3 run that he had.

From there, we had three seasons in a row of Apathy at the top of his game, with the following year being a runner-up finish with the same lineup at Team Envy and then returning in 2018 with WWII to get a second championship with the Evil Geniuses. Though he is seemingly in the decline of his career currently, there is no doubting the unbelievable 2016-2018 run he had.

ACHES is one of the most impressive veterans of all time from the very beginning in 2013 with the first championship season with Black Ops 2. ACHES was part of the unbelievably impressive Complexity Gaming team, one of the first major staples in the Call of Duty scene at the time.

Placing fourth in the initial 2013 season, he and the team would improve at Complexity Gaming to make an impressive comeback and win in 2014 with the Ghosts season. His and the team’s results went up and down through the years, with some amazing results.

In 2015, for instance, his team placed third, while he was able to join fellow members of this list, Apathy, in winning in 2018 as part of the Evil Geniuses roster. Though he is retired now, his mark on the Call of Duty scene remains as a prominent coaching figure in the industry.

Slasher is another player who is one of the smartest around, much like Attach. However, what makes Slasher stand out is that he is one of the most aggressive and in-your-face players around the scene, despite being an AR user most of the time.

Another veteran in the scene started to make a splash on the scene in 2015 as part of the FaZe Red roster, where they were able to get a top-three finish. He continued to grow and get stronger from there, nailing an impressive first-place finish in 2016 alongside Apathy.

While he would not be able to win another championship from then until now, Slasher has remained a powerful force in the business and is not done just yet. With his new team of the LA Guerrillas next year, this is shaping up to be the possible return of one of the greats and a reminder of why he is one of the best.

One of the newest players on this list is none other than Simp. Simp came out of nowhere and blew the Call of Duty esports scene away with his huge splash in 2019 as part of the eUnited Black Ops 4 team. They were able to run away with a dominant championship finish that year.

A terrific SMG player in the game, he is one of the best to ever zip around the map, blasting foes in a quick motion. With lightning-fast reflexes and a quick mind that is unlike any other, there is no wonder that he has shown up and dominated Call of Duty ever since 2019.

In 2020, he was able to get a runner-up finish as part of Atlanta FaZe and this year. He was able to help FaZe finally win their first championship in Call of Duty. Perhaps the scariest part about Simp is that he has not likely reached his peak just yet, certainly making it plausible that he will someday be the best Call of Duty player of all time at this rate.

When it comes to staples in the business, few out there are as notable as JKap. From the very beginning, he was immediately a strong player who dominated Call of Duty and showed that he would not be going anywhere for a long time.

The talented JKap made a strong start in the first championship with a runner-up finish as part of Team Envy. He would return to the championship stage two years later in 2015 to win his first championship as a leader for newer players like the Attach.

That was only the start of several years of phenomenal performance from JKap as he would then return in 2016 as part of Team Envy once more and win a championship again but with a different set of players. While he would not win the championship the next year, he would place second. Now a coach for the LA Thieves team, he can show his unparalleled expertise for a newer generation of players.

The perfect reminder that the number of earnings and championship rings does not necessarily equal greatness is Scump. One of the few players left in the business which has been there since the beginning, Scump is not only one of the best players around but one of the best SMG users in the scene.

Furthermore, Scump is one of the only players who stuck with the same team for most of his career, leaving a legacy behind as the king of OpTic Gaming. He was there back at the start in 2013, with a third-place finish that would, unfortunately, start a trend of not quite winning just yet.

He would land a third-place spot again in 2014 before dipping away for a couple of years until Scump finally created the true OpTic Gaming dynasty in 2017 with the Infinite Warfare championship. Since then, he has placed third twice more. Though this year looked to be a weaker one for Scump, he still has quite a lot of skill and time left in him to compete, and we would not be surprised if OpTic Gaming sees one more championship before he retires.

From here on out, we come to the top three players who have played Call of Duty. These three are on a whole new level compared to everyone else on this list, being part of the exclusive group of three players who have won not one, not two, but three championships in total.

Those three championship rings are indications of just how unmatched in talent they are. First up, we have Clayster, a player who made waves as part of OpTic early in the history of Call of Duty before switching in 2015 to win alongside Attach and JKap in 2015 for his first ring.

He remained a dominant force, slowly improving once more until 2018 with a fourth-place finish that would lead to a second championship in 2019 as part of the fabled eUnited roster. Not content with stopping there, he would come back in 2020 and win as part of the Dallas Empire team in the first-ever Call of Duty League championship. The best part? He may even reach the fourth one someday.

The second of the three rings players in Call of Duty and the runner-up for the best player around is the most winning and highest earning player of all time: Crimsix. Like Clayster, he has been there since basically the start, placing fourth in 2013 and then turning around to win in 2014 with the Complexity Gaming dynasty.

He would continue grinding away, winning event after event until part of the OpTic dynasty that won in 2017. He would continue as part of this dynasty until 2020, when he was part of the first Dallas Empire team and would win his third championship.

There are no players like C6, even winning a third-place finish in 2021 as part of Dallas Empire. There is no one quite as aggressive and powerful as C6, and the best part for his fans is that he is seemingly joining back up with fellow three-ring owner Clayster for 2022, which could result in the fourth ring for both of them.

Last but not least, we have who I believe is the best Call of Duty player of all time: Karma. There is a reason that social media and the community exploded with GOAT comments in 2020 when he retired in the middle of the season as there is no one with his reputation, history, and talent still to this day.

Though he might not have ended his career as strongly as he started, there is no doubt the legacy that he has left behind. It all began in the first championship ever, where he won in Black Ops 2. Before anyone could challenge him, he turned around and won again in 2014 alongside the ACHES and C6.

From there, he would come to be known as part of the OpTic Gaming dynasty that was able to win in 2017. The end of his talented career (at least in terms of a full season played) would happen in 2019 with Black Ops 4. It is too bad that we did not get to see him dominate in Black Ops Cold War this year, but he smartly ended at the right time as the (at the time) first and only three-time champ in the world. He left a strong history behind him that will be hard to beat in the years to come.