The skill-based matchmaking debate in Call of Duty has been raging for years, and was elevated when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) revamped how matchmaking works. During the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta, Treyarch listened to community sentiment and introduced “open” playlists, which prioritized connection and location over player skill level when finding a match.
In a post-beta blog post, Treyarch announced that open matchmaking will be the default when Black Ops 7 launches next month, and there won’t be split playlists. This means skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty as we know it, at least for the foreseeable, is gone.
“At launch, Open Matchmaking with minimal skill consideration will be the default for Black Ops 7 Multiplayer. Simply put, imagine the matchmaking experience of Open Moshpit from the Beta, but as the standard in Black Ops 7 on day one,” Treyarch said. “Our team feels strongly about providing players with a more varied experience, and the Beta proved to be a great opportunity to test this approach. We’ll be sharing more details as we get closer to launch!”
Players have certainly been vocal about skill-based matchmaking in the past, but during the BO7 beta, there were plenty of complaints about the open lobbies being too unfairly matched. In a now-deleted Reddit thread, one user complained about being “completely destroyed” in the open playlist, with responses ranging from “now you understand why skill-based matchmaking exists” to “the argument to keep skill-based matchmaking is moot because the games thrived before it.”
Meanwhile, another thread calls choosing between open and standard playlists “the most laughable thing Call of Duty has ever done.” However, in response, one self-admittedly “not that good” player explained they “tried open [playlists] and got shit on, but switched to [skill-based matchmaking ]playlists and doing better, and having more fun.”
What can we learn from this? You’re never going to appease everyone, but Treyarch will have had enough evidence that the majority of the player base will react positively. Will this change persist throughout the lifespan of the game and into the series beyond? Only time will tell.