Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is launching without SBMM, following heated debates over the feature for years.
Activision Blizzard has officially announced that a controversial Call of Duty multiplayer feature will be absent from the franchise’s next installment, Black Ops 7: skill-based matchmaking. Game developer Treyarch announced that the game’s multiplayer modes will launch with “minimal skill consideration” by default, finally breaking a longstanding series tradition.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 drops skill-based matchmaking
Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta concluded this week, prompting developer Treyarch to post up a series of takeaways and lessons it gained from the public testing period.
In a blog post, the developer addressed concerns over the game’s matchmaking system to confirm that “open Matchmaking with minimal skill consideration will be the default for Black Ops 7 Multiplayer.” Treyarch compared this to the Open Moshpit matchmaking experience from this week’s beta, which now serves as the game’s day one standard.
Treyarch explained that it “feels strongly about providing players with a more varied experience, and the Beta proved to be a great opportunity to test this approach,” with more details on the matchmaking system to come in the future.
Year after year, skill-based matchmaking has been a point of hot debate among Call of Duty players. The matchmaking system is meant to allow players of similar skill levels to get matched together, leading to what many perceive to be “sweaty” matches, where players are forced to play competitively rather than casually.
The system’s inclusion has proven to be controversial in recent Call of Duty titles, and it looks like Activision is finally opting out of it entirely for Black Ops 7.
More Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer changes revealed
Treyarch’s blog post also confirmed that persistent lobbies are coming to Black Ops 7, finally allowing players to stay together from one match to another. Aim assist is also getting some tweaks before launch, although the studio remained tight-lipped on the exact changes being made.
Treyarch also revealed that the game’s Ricochet anti-cheat system has been working rather well throughout its beta period. 98.8% of matches were cheater-free by day five, up from 97.5% on day one.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches on 14 November, 2025.
