Treyarch has assured Call of Duty fans that Black Ops 7 Open Matchmaking system remains unchanged from the beta, directly addressing concerns that the studio may have quietly altered how matchmaking works after launch.
The clarification came after CoD content creator Xclusive Ace shared a detailed comparison showing that his high-skill main account consistently received worse ping than his low-skill “bot” account in identical conditions. In his breakdown, he told viewers, “I don’t believe the matchmaking they’re using in the open playlist is the same matchmaking we saw in the beta”.
Treyarch responds to Xclusive Ace about BO7 Open Matchmaking
After posting the findings, Ace got in contact with Treyarch and later shared the studio’s reply on X. According to him, Treyarch stated that “nothing has changed” with the Black Ops 7 Open Matchmaking system from the beta, and that the rules governing how skill is “minimally considered” have not been updated since the public test.
Open Matchmaking was heavily promoted before release as a major change in how Call of Duty handles match creation. In October, Treyarch wrote, “Open Matchmaking confirmed. At launch, Open Matchmaking with minimal skill consideration will be the default matchmaking for #BlackOps7 MP. Our team is committed to providing players with a more varied experience, and the Beta was a valuable opportunity to test this approach.”
Activision reinforced that message, telling players, “Building on this feedback, we can confirm that Open Matchmaking with minimal skill consideration will be the default for Black Ops 7 Multiplayer.” A later update added that “the majority of #BlackOps7’s MP playlists will have Open matchmaking, which will be similar to the Beta experience where skill is minimally considered”.
Treyarch’s response to Ace does not reveal new technical details. However, the studio maintains that the live version uses the same algorithm as the beta and still treats skill as a low-priority variable.
Ace shared an additional point from his discussion with the developers, one that helps explain why players are feeling such a sharp difference between the beta and the full release. “However, they stated the player demographics and playlist selections are very different in the full build vs the Beta. So the discrepancy that many of us have had with our experience in the Beta vs at Launch is most likely due to these factors. This is something I noted in the video as a potential reason for this and I believe that it’s the case after discussing things with them.”
This means what Treyarch is emphasizing is that the matchmaking rules have not changed, but the environment in which those rules operate looks very different now. The player mix across regions, platforms, and skill levels is far broader than it was during the beta period.
There are also more playlists available at launch, spreading players across many different modes. With fewer concentrated pools, the matchmaking system has to reach further to fill lobbies, and this can lead to higher ping or more varied skill matchups even when the algorithm itself stays the same.
Ace had already proposed this as a likely explanation in his original video, arguing that the beta forced huge numbers of players into a limited set of modes, which meant the system rarely needed to make compromises on ping or lobby balance. After speaking with Treyarch, he now says he believes this is the primary reason so many players feel the live experience does not match the beta, even though the studio insists the core matchmaking logic is unchanged.
This discussion fits into the long-running debate over skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty. Activision explained in October that traditional Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) uses “overall performance” across kills, deaths, wins, losses, mode choices, and recent matches to prevent lobbies where the skill gap feels like “a waste of time”. Black Ops 7’s Open Matchmaking was offered as a middle ground, reducing strict skill filters and restoring persistent lobbies in response to years of player criticism.
Treyarch continues to insist that this system is operating exactly as it did in the beta. Meanwhile, players and creators like XclusiveAce continue to run experiments, and the community remains divided as they analyze their own matchmaking results.
