Black Ops 7 has launched with one of the biggest matchmaking controversies the series has seen in years, and if you’ve been around since the old-school BO2 or MW3 days, you’ll probably notice right away the difference in multiplayer. Treyarch finally ditched the heavy SBMM that was part of the last five Call of Duty entries, but the complete answer for “Does BO7 have SBMM?” has more to it than the early hype made it sound. If you are confused by Treyarch’s wording or last-minute social media posts, here’s everything you need to know about skill-based matchmaking in Black Ops 7.
Open Matchmaking is the Default in Black Ops 7
Thanks to your Beta feedback, the majority of #BlackOps7‘s MP playlists will have Open matchmaking, which will be similar to the Beta experience where skill is minimally considered.
The exception will be one rotating Moshpit at launch where skill will be an important… pic.twitter.com/gKssm3j4J2
— Treyarch (@Treyarch) November 11, 2025
Treyarch confirmed that Open Matchmaking is the standard system for most Black Ops 7 playlists. This is exactly what the beta used last month—the one everyone praised for finally letting the game breathe again. Open Matchmaking still checks your skill to a small degree, but it’s nowhere near the rigid, sweaty matchmaking that BO6 and MW2019 onward used. Rather than shoving you into lobbies where everyone drops 7KD and slide-cancels for their life, BO7 allows a much wider spread of skill levels.
You’ll find that some matches are stacked with killers, some mixed, and a few others include novice players who still have to learn the difference between Tac Sprint and crouch. That’s how old COD matchmaking worked, and Treyarch stated that the goal is to bring back the variety, not to punish you to have a good game.
Even though BO7’s matchmaking is mostly open, Treyarch mentioned “majority of playlists” and “minimal skill consideration,” which sent the community spiraling hours before launch. Some players think “open” means no SBMM at all, and after clarification from Treyarch’s end, fans called it a “rug pull.” Treyarch never promised SBMM would be removed entirely—the devs only said something close to the beta’s system, and that’s what we have in the official game.
So yes, some skill sorting is happening. But it’s the old-school, light-touch version, not the “every lobby a Ranked” version.
Closed Matchmaking Exists, But Only in Specific Playlists
On top of the open playlists, Treyarch also confirmed a rotatable Closed Matchmaking Moshpit. This playlist does use stronger SBMM for players who prefer consistency and tightly matched games. Ranked Play coming in 2026 will also use strict SBMM, as expected. Everything else stays in the open system unless Treyarch updates it later. That last point is why some creators warn about long-term changes: Treyarch never guaranteed open matchmaking would be permanent in Black Ops 7, but it’s the default from day one.
Is there SBMM in Black Ops 7?
Yes, BO7 has SBMM, but it’s not the same you spent the last five years fighting against. Black Ops 7 uses ping as the top priority (like every modern COD on dedicated servers), minimal skill sorting to prevent extreme mismatches, and a large player pool, so lobbies are not sweat-fests every match.
It’s nothing like Black Ops 6 or 2019’s Modern Warfare matchmaking, but it’s not completely 2009 connection-based either—modern servers don’t support strict P2P-style matchmaking like Call of Duty 4 or Modern Warfare 2 used. If you expected the game to ignore skill-based lobbies, that was never a real thing. But the current BO7 SBMM is barely noticeable unless you continuously drop insane scorelines.
Persistent Lobbies are Back, and That Changes a Lot
Other than open matchmaking, Treyarch introduced persistent lobbies in Black Ops 7, something the community has begged for many years, which alone massively reduces the “SBMM squeeze” effect because:
- Lobbies don’t reset after every match
- Bad games don’t instantly place you in easier lobbies
- Good games don’t right away throw you into .01% demon lobbies
- Rivalries, rematches, and familiar faces return
Persistent lobbies make the game far more like the previous titles, where you settle into a lobby with the same handful of people instead of being reshuffled by the algorithm.
Even with SBMM reduced, some people say their matches are still as intense. There’s a simple reason: strong players gravitate toward non-SBMM playlists. When a game gives players a choice between a mode with SBMM and a mode with reduced SBMM. The better players mostly pick the open one to get free lobbies.
Over time, the open playlist becomes a higher-skill pool because that’s who fills it. This happened in Destiny, Halo MCC, and even in old COD experiments. BO7 hasn’t fully run into this yet, but in the long term, it can shift depending on where the players land. So open matchmaking only works if default for every playlist, which removes the ability for above-average players to self-sort into the same queue.
