Does Call of Duty: Warzone battle royale feature skill-based matchmaking?

There don’t appear to be many gripes with Call of Duty: Warzone so far. While it’s still early, fans are enjoying the huge map of Verdansk and the multiple new features that Warzone has introduced. One of the big unknown questions with the battle royale, however, concerns skill-based matchmaking. This is a feature that would have turned away a huge portion of potential players, as it’s widely disliked in the community. However, according to an Infinity Ward developer, there’s no skill-based matchmaking in Warzone.

Warzone does not have skill-based matchmaking

A recent trend in multiplayer video games, skill-based matchmaking is a form of pairing you up with other players. In the past, ping and Internet connection have been the most important factors of matchmaking. But recently, developers have used skill as the premier way to match you with players.

Apex Legends and Fortnite both utilize this feature, as does Modern Warfare multiplayer. This practice is disliked by a ton of higher-level players because they’re constantly put in lobbies with players around their skill level.

Though other battle royales do feature SBMM, it appears that Warzone does not. One YouTuber spoke to a developer at Infinity Ward, Pat Kelly, who stated it is not present “in any of the larger player count modes of Modern Warfare“.

2 hours!

Also, direct from Pat Kelly, development lead at Infinity Ward.

"There is not skill-based matchmaking in any of the larger player count modes of Modern Warfare."

So no SBMM in Warzone.

— Marksman (@Marksman) March 10, 2020

This is no doubt a huge sigh of relief for any fan or current Warzone player. SBMM has proven to help out the lesser-skilled players, but it leaves more talented players out to dry. Infinity Ward has most likely opted to not include it due to the high player count for each match. Most Warzone games feature 150 players, which is a ton of users to match together in a short amount of time.

Of course, this could potentially change in the future, as it did with Fortnite. However, as of right now, skill-based matchmaking is not present in Warzone battle royale.

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