We’re just days away from the latest Call of Duty release, and Activision has reiterated its stance on one of the franchise’s most controversial features ahead of launch.
During Black Ops 7’s beta last month, Treyarch and Activision finally pulled the plug on the heavy-handed skill-based matchmaking in public playlists that have been a paint point in the series for the last five years. And it went over so well with players that it’s staying in the game for good.
“Thanks to your beta feedback, the majority of Black Ops 7’s multiplayer playlists will have Open matchmaking, which will be similar to the beta experience where skill is minimally considered,” Treyarch announced today.
However, SBMM isn’t going away for good. Treyarch said that there will be a “Closed Matchmaking” rotating moshpit playlist at launch “where skill will be an important consideration, and Ranked Play will also use skill as an important consideration when it launches” early in 2026.
In addition to this great news, BO7 will also have persistent lobbies instead of breaking up every lobby after each game as CoD has done over the past few releases. Both of these concerns have been big complaints among the playerbase since 2019, so to see the changes finally being made, it has gone over very well with CoD gamers.
With the reduced SBMM in the beta, BO7 felt like a different game compared to most recent releases, in the best way. The lobbies felt more like a crap shoot as to what kind of players you match with and against, as opposed to actively being punished for performing well. And even better, the connections felt great and matchmaking queues would pop very quickly.
For now, I have to admit that I’m slightly concerned that the announcement is worded carefully to say that the SBMM “will be similar to the beta experience,” and not just a one-to-one. But I’m optimistic.
If BO7’s multiplayer can feel like this for good, then we may be in for one of the better CoD titles in recent years from a multiplayer standpoint. Coupled with campaign, Zombies, and the new Endgame co-op mode, it could be a good year for CoD fans.
