Treyarch confirm Black Ops 7 ‘Open Matchmaking’ will be the default for Multiplayer

Well, who saw this coming? For a long time now, Call of Duty fans have long bemoaned SBMM (Skill-based Matchmaking) in the games, and during the recent Black Ops 7 Beta, Treyarch ran several trials with this tuned very low. Big surprise, it was a hit, and now they’ve confirmed Black Ops 7 ‘Open Matchmaking’ will be the default for Multiplayer.

Sharing the news on social media, the team announced “The Call of Duty community is unmatched, and we thank you for joining us in the Black Ops 7 Beta over the last week. This Beta has provided Treyarch the opportunity to try new things and rapidly test and implement player feedback. Building on this feedback, we can confirm that Open Matchmaking with minimal skill consideration will be the default for Black Ops 7 Multiplayer. Additionally, to help keep players together from match to match more often, persistent lobbies will be coming to Black Ops 7 at launch on November 14.“

It’s worth noting that SBMM isn’t completely going away, but will be tuned to ‘minimal skill consideration’ as the default. Perhaps that will be the end of what feel like very ‘sweaty’ lobbies and instead, an occasional stomping?

The team shared other details over on the Call of Duty website, with updates on more persistent lobbies that will keep players together between matches, including some planned updates to aim assist before the game launches. Ricochet Anti-cheat also was apparently enormously successful – per the team, “On Day 1 of the Black Ops 7 Beta, 97.5% of matches were completely clean of cheaters. By Day 5, that number rose to 98.8% of matches being cheater-free. “

How do we feel about these changes Call of Duty fans? Let us know on the XboxEra Forums or share your thoughts on the XboxEra Community Discord.