Activision’s research shows that without SBMM, most players quickly switch off in frustration
For many years, there has been a debate among fans ofCall of Dutyabout the controversial, often misunderstood and almost legendary skill-based matchmaking, usually abbreviated as SBMM.
Simply put, SBMMis an invisible metric that always assigns players in public lobbies to opponents of similar strength – which serves to ensure fairness, but in turn brings with it a whole host ofnew problems
Now Activision goes on an information offensive andunveils a documententitled “Matchmaking Series: The Role of Skill in Matchmaking”.
This 25-page report explains the skill concept within SBMM in more detail and how it really comes into play.
One particularly exciting aspect is the documentationof a large-scale experiment In the process, SBMM was massively shut down – with sometimes drastic effects.
Less SBMM, more frustration
Developer and industry consultantRami Ismail summarizes the findingsfrom Activision’s SBMM experiment as follows:
They secretly turned off the SBMM and monitored the behaviors. As it turns out,everyone hated it Matches were canceled more often, fewer games were played overall and rounds were often extremely one-sided.
What happened?In 2024, the SBMM was temporarily massively reduced for certain regions in Modern Warfare 3.
Thousands of players were suddenly without the skill restrictions without their knowledge and ended up in almost random groups. According to Activision, the result is clear:
- 90 percentof players started the game less often
- 80 percentof players abandoned matches prematurely
According to Activision, the multiplayer rounds in Call of Duty without SBMM caused significantly more frustration and reduced the general interest in starting the game. Users in the “low and medium skill range” were particularly affected by this, according to the document.
Ping remains king
The paper summarizes the findings from the SBMM experiment as follows:
Playing against a superior opponent promotes the urge to improve oneself. However, if players are very strongly dominated, they tend to leave the match or not start the multiplayer (anymore).
At the same time, it is emphasized that skill is not the only decisive metric when selecting lobbies. For example, matchmaking gives top priority to the geographical location of playersto ensure a good connection.
Only then would skill, the input device used and other factors be taken into account. The argument that SBMM results in poorer pings and lags when playing seems to be off the table at least.
What do you think of the SBMM system and the sudden transparency offensive by the CoD makers? Let us know in the comments below
