| Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
| Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Next to the main story campaign with its scripted gameplay, MW3 features two cooperative game modes. The first is Spec Ops, making a return from the previous game. It has the players perform brief missions and a star is awarded based on the performance. The second is the new Survival Mode, where players fight off different waves of enemy soldiers which get progressively harder.
The multiplayer portion comes with the usual game modes (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, ). In addition to these, several new game modes have been included. The first is called Kill Confirmed and requires the player to retrieve the dog tags of defeated enemies for the kill to register. The opposing team can also retrieve it to deny the players kill. Another one, Team Defender, involves teams capturing a single flag on the map and keeping it for as long as possible to score the most points. There are also several pre-made modes for private matches, such as Infection (kill enemies to recruit them), Drop Zone (hold a zone for points and care packages), Team Juggernaut (each team has an AI Juggernaut character), and Gun Game (every player only has a pistol and three bullets, and earns extra guns and bullets by getting kills).
The Killstreak reward system from the previous games for multiplayer has been scrapped in favour of the new Pointstreak system. Points are earned by completing additional challenges, next to just raking in kills. The rewards are organized in three strike packages: Assault, Support, and Specialist, each with new options and perks as they are unlocked.
