Black Ops 7 SBMM: What Player Testing Really Reveals About “Open” Matchmaking

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched with one of the most controversial promises in recent multiplayer history: a move toward looser matchmaking where skill would supposedly be “minimally considered” in most playlists. After years of tightly tuned skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), many players saw this as a partial return to the classic Call of Duty experience. But once players started seriously testing the system, the mood shifted. Data-driven breakdowns began to suggest that the reality of Black Ops 7’s matchmaking is more complicated—and more restrictive—than some fans hoped.

This article unpacks what “open” matchmaking actually means, what community testers have uncovered, how Treyarch and Activision have framed SBMM in official communication, and why this debate matters for the future of Call of Duty’s multiplayer design.

How We Got Here: The Long Road to “Open” Matchmaking

To understand why Black Ops 7’s matchmaking has become such a flash point, it helps to look at how SBMM evolved in the series over the last several years.

SBMM in Modern Call of Duty

While exact algorithms are proprietary, the core idea of SBMM is straightforward: players are grouped into lobbies based on their estimated skill so that matches feel competitive rather than one-sided. Activision has never published a full technical breakdown of its SBMM systems, but it has repeatedly stated that the goal is to keep games fair and engaging for as many people as possible, from casual players to aspiring competitors.

• Skill estimation: Typically derived from a blend of performance indicators like win rate, kill/death ratio, and other hidden metrics.
• Matchmaking goals: Balance skill while still respecting connection quality and latency, which Activision has called a top priority in various statements about networking and matchmaking.
• Persistent debate: Many high-skill and long-time players argue that strong SBMM makes every match sweaty, discourages experimentation, and punishes good performance.

Officially, Activision has defended the use of skill-based systems across multiple titles as a way to keep players engaged and reduce churn, a stance consistent with broader industry practice in competitive multiplayer games.

Why Black Ops 7 Felt Different

Leading up to Black Ops 7, Treyarch began signaling a shift. During the beta, the studio talked about an open-style matchmaking experience where skill would be a much smaller factor than in previous games, especially in an “open” moshpit playlist featuring more organic, persistent lobbies. This was widely read as an experiment in easing off strict SBMM while still preserving some skill logic in ranked modes and more competitive playlists.

The core expectations many players walked away with were:

• Most casual playlists would use relaxed, “open” matchmaking.
• Skill would matter far less than in games like Modern Warfare II or Modern Warfare III.
• Only explicitly labeled competitive or ranked modes would have strong SBMM.

When official messaging later clarified that only the “majority” of playlists would use open matchmaking—and that one rotating moshpit plus future ranked play would feature skill as an “important consideration”—players started to notice how strategic that language was. That tension set the stage for community testing.

What Community Testing Says About Black Ops 7 SBMM

After launch, several prominent Call of Duty creators and data-minded players began systematically analyzing their matches in Black Ops 7. Their goal was to determine how much skill still mattered in the allegedly loose, open playlists.

Methodologies Used by Players

While each tester has their own workflow, most of the community-led analysis has followed a similar pattern:

• Large sample sizes: Recording dozens or hundreds of matches across different times of day and playlists.
• Tracking performance: Logging metrics such as kills, deaths, score per minute, and lobby K/D averages.
• Comparative queues: Running trials in both “open” playlists and more clearly labeled skill-based playlists where available.
• Controlled variables: Trying to keep factors like party size, region, and time of day consistent where possible.

These aren’t peer-reviewed academic studies, but they’re far from random anecdotes. Many testers have shared raw screenshots and match histories to support their claims, which the wider community has been able to scrutinize.

Key Findings From Player Tests

While different testers emphasize different details, several recurring themes have emerged:

• Consistently tight lobbies: Players with strong stats frequently report being matched with other high-performing players in open playlists far more often than chance would suggest.
• Performance feedback loop: When a player strings together several strong games, they often report an immediate shift into harder lobbies, followed by easier matches after a poor performance—classic SBMM behavior.
• Limited variance: Even in open playlists, the average skill level per lobby often clusters tightly rather than showing the wide distribution you’d expect from truly loose matchmaking.
• Queue times vs. quality: Matchmaking speed is generally good, aligning with Activision’s long-standing emphasis on latency and quick matches, but testers argue this is achieved without meaningfully relaxing SBMM.

Taken together, these patterns suggest that skill may be a stronger factor in open matchmaking than the marketing language implied, even if the system is marginally looser than in previous entries.

*Perceived intensity refers to community perception, not official metrics.

What Treyarch and Activision Say About SBMM in Black Ops 7

Amid growing scrutiny, Treyarch and Activision have been forced to clarify what exactly is happening under the hood. Their messaging has consistently walked a tightrope between acknowledging player feedback and defending the need for skill-aware systems.

Open Matchmaking as the “Default” Experience

In statements shared before and around launch, Treyarch emphasized that:

• The majority of Black Ops 7 multiplayer playlists would use an open-style matchmaking system.
• In those open playlists, skill is minimally considered compared to previous titles.
• Persistent lobbies would be more common, leading to more organic, old-school-feeling matches.

The studio also noted that at launch there would be one rotating moshpit where skill is an important factor, and that ranked modes—arriving later in the game’s lifecycle—would rely heavily on SBMM, as you’d expect from a competitive mode.

At the same time, Activision has consistently maintained across recent Call of Duty titles that it must balance multiple factors in matchmaking: connection quality, latency, skill, and the health of the player population. That broader philosophy has not changed, even if the relative weighting of those variables may differ between playlists and games.

Why “Minimal Consideration” Is Such a Loaded Phrase

The core friction comes down to how players interpret the phrase “skill is minimally considered.” To many fans, that sounded like a promise of near-random matchmaking where you might stomp or be stomped from match to match, just as in older Call of Duty games.

However, from a design perspective, “minimally considered” may still mean:

• Skill is used as a secondary or tertiary filter once latency and region are accounted for.
• Very high or very low outliers are softened to avoid extreme mismatches.
• Recent performance still nudges you toward slightly different brackets to maintain engagement.

In other words, even a “loosely” skill-informed system can strongly shape the average lobby if the player population is large and the algorithm aggressively clusters similar profiles.

Why the Community Is So Split on Black Ops 7’s Matchmaking

The reaction to Black Ops 7’s matchmaking is far from uniform. Some players feel the game is clearly more relaxed than its predecessors; others insist it’s essentially business as usual with extra marketing spin. That split comes down to several underlying tensions.

Casual vs. Competitive Expectations

Different segments of the player base want fundamentally different things from matchmaking:

• Casual players often prefer a mix of matchmaking outcomes: some easy games, some hard games, and plenty of chaotic lobbies where anything can happen. They value variety and fun over perfectly even matches.
• Competitive players want consistency and fair fights. They dislike lobbies where one team clearly outclasses the other or where smurfs stomp lower-skill players.

Modern SBMM systems aim to protect newer or weaker players, something gaming research suggests can improve retention and reduce early drop-off in competitive titles. But the same systems can leave long-time, high-skill players feeling like every game is a ranked match in disguise.

Trust Erosion and Marketing Language

After years of heated debate around SBMM, many Call of Duty players are wary of vague or carefully phrased promises. When Treyarch says “the majority” of playlists will be open and “skill is minimally considered,” skeptical fans hear loopholes:

• What about future seasonal updates and new playlists?
• How much skill weighting is still happening behind the scenes?
• Could open matchmaking be dialed back, or quietly replaced, later in the game’s lifecycle?

The result is a baseline level of distrust: even if Black Ops 7 is looser than previous games, many players are primed to assume the worst, especially when community testing aligns with their suspicions.

The Design Trade-Offs Behind SBMM in Black Ops 7

Behind the outrage and conspiracy theories lies a real and difficult design problem. Building a matchmaking system for a massive, global shooter like Call of Duty involves trade-offs that are hard to solve cleanly.

Key Factors Matchmaking Must Balance

In broad terms, a system like Black Ops 7’s is juggling at least four major variables:

• Latency and connection quality – Players tend to quit games where they are consistently disadvantaged by ping. Major studios routinely say this is a top priority.
• Skill balance – Even a mild SBMM system tries to avoid extreme mismatches that cause new or weaker players to get steamrolled.
• Queue times – Faster matchmaking is generally better, especially on consoles and in regions with smaller populations.
• Player engagement – Developers want players to feel challenged but not overwhelmed, which often leads to algorithms that soft-adjust lobbies based on performance.

Relax one factor and the others get harder to manage. Truly random matchmaking would create more extreme outcomes, especially on regional servers with wide skill ranges, which could frustrate new players and shorten their time in the game—something no publisher wants.

Is There a Middle Ground?

Black Ops 7’s partial pivot to open playlists and persistent lobbies can be seen as an attempt at compromise:

• Give casual players a space that feels more like older Call of Duty, with less overt SBMM.
• Keep ranked and explicitly competitive modes tightly skill-gated.
• Maintain core protections for very low-skill or brand-new players in the background.

The controversy arises from whether the implementation lives up to that vision. For some players, the match-to-match experience in open playlists is clearly looser and more enjoyable than in the past. For others—particularly high-skill or grinding players—the data suggests the needle hasn’t moved far enough to matter.

What This Means for the Future of Call of Duty Matchmaking

Whatever you think of Black Ops 7’s SBMM, it represents a significant moment for the franchise’s multiplayer philosophy. It shows that Treyarch and Activision are at least willing to experiment with alternative matchmaking styles, even if those experiments come wrapped in cautious, lawyerly language.

Possible Directions Treyarch Could Take

Based on past Call of Duty cycles and current community discourse, a few plausible outcomes stand out:

• Gradual tightening: Open matchmaking remains in name, but skill weighting quietly increases over time as new players arrive and seasonal updates roll out.
• True separation of queues: Clearer labels and more transparency between fully open, lightly skill-aware, and strongly skill-based playlists, letting players self-select their preferred experience.
• Data-driven adjustments: Treyarch continues monitoring match data, player retention, and community feedback, tweaking the balance between connection and skill over multiple seasons.

Because Activision has historically guarded SBMM details closely, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a public algorithm breakdown. Instead, change will be felt in subtle shifts: how lobbies feel after hot streaks, how often stomps occur, and whether players believe their feedback is influencing design.

What Players Can Do

For players who care deeply about SBMM, a few practical steps make sense:

• Play across playlists: If you want the loosest possible matchmaking, stick to playlists that emphasize the open system and avoid explicitly skill-based queues.
• Support data-driven discussion: Share and engage with testing that uses clear methods and transparent stats, rather than relying solely on anecdotal feelings.
• Communicate constructively: Use official channels, feedback forms, and public posts to explain what you want from matchmaking without resorting to personal attacks or conspiracy theories.

Ultimately, player behavior and long-term engagement will speak loudest. If open playlists with lighter SBMM genuinely keep more people playing, publishers have a financial incentive to keep expanding them.

FAQs: Black Ops 7 and Skill-Based Matchmaking

Is SBMM completely gone in Black Ops 7?

No. Black Ops 7 has not removed SBMM entirely. While many playlists use what Treyarch calls open matchmaking, skill is still considered to some degree in most modes, and certain playlists plus ranked play rely on strong skill-based systems.

Are open playlists truly random?

Open playlists are not purely random. Community testing indicates that even in these modes, matchmaking still groups players with broadly similar skill profiles more often than chance would allow, though the system appears looser than in some previous entries.

Why does Call of Duty use SBMM at all?

Skill-based systems are used to protect new and low-skill players from extremely lopsided matches and to keep games competitive and engaging. Large multiplayer titles across the industry use some form of SBMM for these reasons.

Can Treyarch change matchmaking after launch?

Yes. Matchmaking parameters can be and often are adjusted throughout a game’s lifecycle based on data and feedback. Many players expect Black Ops 7’s matchmaking to evolve through seasonal updates.

How can I get the most casual-feeling matches?

Stick to playlists labeled as open or those that emphasize loose matchmaking and persistent lobbies. Avoid ranked and explicitly skill-based moshpits, and consider playing with friends of varied skill levels to broaden the lobby profile.