Screengrab per Activision

The best SMGs in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, ranked

Pocket punchers that pile on the pain.

Submachine guns, or SMGs, should always find a place in one of your loadouts. Although they appear as small, agile, and unnecessary weapons, they’ll put an end to opponents in no time. Additionally, in a small enclosed space, they’re a lot easier to use than swinging an assault rifle around, making you a faster, more equipped player.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has its fair share of SMGs in its armory, and though all of them are useful in unique ways, some are just more useful than others. If you’re wondering which one you should turn to in Multiplayer modes, then this guide is going to attempt to help you out.

8. Striker 45

The reimagined UMP-45 is brought upon from a nightmare. Its fire rate is lackluster enough to take it out of the SMG category, entirely. The new Striker 45 is more of a sub-par Assault Rifle that is for those that can only land effortless headshots. Thus, even with attachments, it doesn’t really serve a purpose. You must respect, though, that Infinity Ward honored our nostalgia with its existence.

7. PP19 Bizon

The description for the PP19 Bison, in the game, is scribed as “well balanced” with a “high capacity helical magazine.” The best advice we can give is to never go for any gun that’s purposefully constructed to be balanced. This ultimately means its decent in every comparable stats, with no standout feature. The recoil is as smooth as silk, but you’ll need to put out a clip and a half to end just one opponent.

6. AUG

The AUG really is finding its own group that worships the gun. It’s mainly due to its range being above and beyond many other SMGs. Like the Striker, its a mirror of a decent AR, but why settle for a decent AR-like gun, when you can literally pick out a great AR? It’s not a logical pick, in our eyes, but if you want to shoot far and fast, by all means.

5. Uzi

Whatever you do with the Uzi, don’t try to use this for anything other than close to medium range combat, or you’re going to look pretty foolish when someone is mooning your corpse. There’s a frustrating sense that Infinity Ward debated on making it a secondary gun. We say this because, like a pistol, its clip is too small and is hard to control. The only thing that’s special about the gun is how it looks so stunning in a glowing gold camo. If you truly want to unlock the camo, add attachments that calm its unbelievably shaky recoil.

4. P90

What once was the best, slowly became a lousy performer. With the next three of our guns listed being such rapid-fire weapons, the P90 is like an aging quarterback who cannot keep up with the competition. The gun has seen numerous updates that has weakened its damage rate, so it never comes out successful against the MP5, shotguns, and almost all ARs.

3. MP7

If you don’t think you can miss a shot, the MP7 is your gun. It’s practically the Uzi but with user-friendly recoil and damage. In modes like Search and Destroy, the MP7 is a fearful tool used for the stealthiest of gunners. If attached with the Monolithic Suppressor, along with other top notch attachments, the MP7 will be a powerful punch during close range battles. We advise that you put Ghost and Tracker on as your perks, so that you can sneak around the map unnoticed, hunting enemies from behind with this quick killer.

2. Fennec

This new SMG is starting to be hailed as one of the best in the game. You’ll be moving a bit slower than if you had an MP5 or MP7, but its accuracy saves you many clips of ammo. In actuality, it feels as if this is what the Striker 45 could have been – an SMG that isn’t as fast but is for the expert players who can nail the smallest of hit boxes. It’s first update saw increase in fire rate, so there’s some concern that this could possibly overpower the MP5, along with almost every other gun, soon.

1. MP5

As the veterans of Call of Duty say something like, “kids will never understand the power of the UMP 45,” younger audiences will soon say that no one ever understood the behemoth that was the MP5. We believe this, so much so, that you should really try it out before the next game comes to steal all relevance from Modern Warfare. It’s almost poetic how its levels of mobility and damage compliment each other, as their both deadly. The footlong, compact weapon can take out teams at a time, if the right attachments are on. We recommend you place the Merc Foregrip, Stippled Grip Tape, and FTAC Collapsible on it, to see its full potential.

Related: Best Assault Rifles in Call of Duty: Warzone


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Ryan Willcox
Ryan Willcox is a Staff Writer at Gamepur. He is mostly known to cover free-to-play titles, spanning from Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, to Apex Legends. Outside of games, Ryan's other personal interests are reading scientific nonfiction and running.