If you’ve been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s competitive multiplayer since the game came out on Friday, you’ve probably noticed one gun in particular pop up more than any other: the MP5.

This devastating full-auto submachine gun was widely considered the best weapon in the game, and outperformed other classes of guns in situations it really shouldn’t.

With the right attachments, the MP5 could drop an enemy quickly from the kind of distances Assault Rifles should excel in – and sometimes even farther – and this, coupled with its extremely low recoil, made it the face-melting machine of choice in Black Ops Cold War.

So popular was the MP5 that it became an instant meme within the Call of Duty community.

Now, just a handful of days after Black Ops Cold War came out, Treyarch has slapped the MP5 with a nerf.

In a tweet, Treyarch signalled it had updated the game to reduce the MP5’s base effective damage range by a whopping 33 per cent, and adjusted the initial recoil.

“Now get out there and try the other four!” Treyarch said, encouraging fans to try the other submachine guns in the game.

This is Black Ops Cold War’s first balance update and it only touches the MP5, which shows just how much of a problem the gun was.

“We’re keeping this limited to the one gun we’ve gotten the most feedback on, as we continue working on the larger pass for Season 1,” Treyarch designer Tony Flame said on Twitter.

It’s early days, of course, but this significant nerf will hopefully go some way to add a dash of weapon variety to the competitive multiplayer mix. I might give the AK-74u a shot myself.