Does Black Ops 7 have Skill-Based Matchmaking?

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 operator David Mason running with rifle pointed for forward — (Image credit: Activision)

For the most part, no, Black Ops 7 does not use Skill-Based Matchmaking to assemble players of roughly equal skill levels into lobbies. In fact, the way the multiplayer playlists are laid out effectively means you must opt into SBMM by choosing the right playlist in Black Ops 7, otherwise you'll be matched with players based on factors other than skill. Many previous Call of Duty titles use skill-based systems but it's always a highly contentious issue, so here's everything you need to know about how BO7 handles SBMM.

How Skill-Based Matchmaking works in Black Ops 7

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 open playlists menu with no skill-based matchmaking — (Image credit: Activision)

Black Ops 7 has two distinct matchmaking lists for multiplayer, Open and Standard – where the former features no Skill-Based Matchmaking.

Open is "matchmaking where skill is minimally considered", so if you don’t want SBMM, stick to Quick Play or the Open playlists, which include Team Deathmatch, Core Moshpit, Skirmish 20v20, and more! Conveniently, these are marked with a red and blue Open Playlist icon, so you'll know for sure what the matchmaking situation is.

Bear in mind that you'll be coming up against players of any and all skill levels in these playlists, so you might get stomped by a team of pros in one match, but you might be doing the stomping in the next one. Open Playlists also feature persistent lobbies, which means that all players who don't quit the lobby are kept together for the next match. So, if you do find that you're getting stomped, it might be a good idea to back out and start matchmaking again to find a different lobby of players.

Standard playlists are where skill is an "important consideration", but, currently, there is only one: Standard Moshpit. In Standard Playlists, you'll be coming up against players of a roughly similar skill level to you, so expect matches to be competitive. To ensure you are playing against players of an appropriate skill level, lobbies are usually disbanded after every match too, which can increase the time between matches.

Regardless of the playlist you're hopping into, make sure you're set up with the best Black Ops 7 controller settings and know which guns are ideal for your loadouts thanks to the Black Ops 7 meta.

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Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.