SBMM (skill-based matchmaking) enters the news yet again as Black Ops 7’s devs have fully committed to an about-face on the highly debated practice of matching folks with relative skill levels in online matches with randos. Not only will matches have more variety of skill level across players, but perhaps most excitingly, randomly matched lobbies that vibe well can stick together across multiple games, much like how things used to work in the good old days of Halo 3 and other shooters that let people party up and play together in game after game more seamlessly.
The news broke via a blog post following the game’s beta (h/t CharlieIntel), and it’s music to the ears of many. In theory, grouping up people of similar skill levels in random matches sounds good. In practice, opponents of this approach argue that it leads to sweatier, more competitive matches. Its overuse effectively eliminates a more relaxed playstyle in which every match isn’t just a zero-sum game for aspiring esports competitors to rule the leaderboards.
The SBMM war is over… never thought we’d see it https://t.co/nMnglDVgdv
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) October 9, 2025
SBMM isn’t being totally thrown out. The dev blog states that there’ll be “minimal skill consideration” for default BLOPS 7 games. So hopefully that means we won’t see too many players with a pro-level skillset demolishing folks just looking to unwind after work with a few rounds of COD.
I’m skeptical that this pivot will see the debate over SBMM go away. Still, it’s a great opportunity for BLOPS7 to serve as a case study for how devs can design matchmaking features that optimize having fun without shutting out the more competitive players amongst us.
