Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Matchmaking Will Use ‘New System’

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta is upon us, and matchmaking is sure to be one of the most talked-about topics of the entire thing once again. SBMM. Open matchmaking. What fun discourse awaits us this time?

CoD fans who actively engage on X might have noticed Call of Duty’s socials have been more vocal than normal. Communication is being considered much more for MW4—a good and bad thing.

But one thing that has been mentioned about Modern Warfare 4‘s beta is that it will feature unique matchmaking for the first time.

Modern Warfare 4 Will Use Open Matchmaking

The Call of Duty X page has been engaging more with players and the community ahead of the Modern Warfare 4 beta.

Matchmaking was brought up, and the account explained how matchmaking would work across the two weekends:

“Two things we want to clear up:

• First, this is not a return to the tighter matchmaking of recent games. Connection remains a top priority.

• Second, every Call of Duty has had matchmaking that considers skill, including BO1 & BO2.

But matchmaking has never been one switch. Location, time of day, playlist, party composition, platform, cross-play settings and player population all affect how lobbies are built. The new system is finding a better balance across all of these for the best experience.

So what happens next? The MW4 Beta will use the new system. We’ll also have Open Matchmaking available so we can keep learning from both. We’ll keep looking at the data, listening to what players are telling us, and improving. Call of Duty is about having fun and matchmaking exists to support that. Our goal is simple: make every match a good match.”

There will be a healthy mix of everything then, basically.

If you’re in the ‘open matchmaking camp,’ then the Call of Duty page also threw out some stats suggesting that wanting open matchmaking isn’t actually as fun and practical in reality:

“For 80% of players in BO7 from launch to Season 04, Open vs. Standard saw:

• 32.7% higher quit rates

• 14.4% fewer kills per minute

• 5.3% lower win rates • 59.2% more “Not Fun” ratings

On Nuketown 24/7, quit rates jumped 141%. Our most competitive players were leaving 1 in every 3 matches. Quit rates skyrocketed and it was disruptive across every skill group.

Disbanding lobbies is apparently also an issue when open matchmaking is considered:

“What about disbanding lobbies? About 50% of players leave after the first match, and by game three, almost none of the original lobby remains. Backfilling takes longer. Starting fresh gets players into a match faster and lets us better prioritize ping.”

Is open matchmaking being better just a myth? I’m sure Infinity Ward will be tracking every stat and piece of data across all Modern Warfare 4 matchmaking.

Depending on how you play and interact with lobbies in the beta, it could determine the strength of SBMM in MW4 and whether it’s even open at all.

Is SBMM going to dominate the MW4 beta narrative? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server.

For more, read ‘Modern Warfare 4 Beta PC Specs & Requirements Revealed,’ and don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.