The debate surrounding matchmaking in Call of Duty has been a persistent one, with players divided on whether matches should prioritize even skill distribution or introduce an element of unpredictability. While 2025's Black Ops 7 offered both skill-based and open matchmaking playlists, the latest title, Modern Warfare 4, has launched without the explicit option for open matchmaking, reigniting community discussion.
Infinity Ward's Multiplayer Creative Director, Joe Cecot, addressed the matchmaking system, emphasizing that the priority is the quality of the matches themselves. "I don't know if there's perfecting it," Cecot stated regarding matchmaking. "For us, I think the most important thing when we look at matchmaking is that the matches we put together are good matches. And we're also looking at the players and their experience, and we can look at the data and how it affects things, and we can quantify how it affects a certain group of players or a large percentage of them in a negative way. And so, though we're not talking about exact specifics on matchmaking, our end goal is that every match is a good match."
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has been a feature in Call of Duty since the original Modern Warfare, but its impact on player experience became more pronounced with tighter algorithms from the 2019 reboot onwards. The theoretical benefit of SBMM is creating balanced and competitive games by pitting similarly skilled players against each other. However, the practical application can lead to inconsistent experiences, where exceptional performance in one match results in a significantly more difficult lobby in the next, causing player frustration.
While a perfect matchmaking system may remain elusive, the inclusion of open queues in Black Ops 7 provided players with an alternative to SBMM. The current implementation in Modern Warfare 4 has led to confusion among the player base, as a "persistent lobby" option is available but its relation to open matchmaking is not explicitly stated. The apparent absence of open matchmaking at launch, or at least its unclear presentation, has been a point of contention for some players.