The most criticized feature of Call of Duty is also in Battlefield 6, but it varies depending on the game mode.
What is this unpopular feature? Battlefield 4 will have a form of skill-based matchmaking. The developers of the shooter revealed this to CharlieIntel (via X).
SBMM is a matchmaking system that selects your teammates and opponents based on your skill and gameplay performance. The better you play, the stronger your opponents will be.
Skill-based matchmaking is used in various shooters and has been harshly criticized for years, especially within the Call of Duty community. Some people find SBMM good because it prevents them from having to play against significantly better players. Others criticize the system because it means they can no longer play relaxed rounds and have to give their best in every match.
Skill is negligible despite SBMM
How is the matchmaking of Battlefield 6 supposed to work? The developers haven’t revealed much about the matchmaking of Battlefield 6, but the system is expected to rely on 4 factors:
- Ping
- The player’s location
- The server availability
- a certain skill factor
Your skill is thus supposed to play a role in matchmaking.
How does the matchmaking differ? The matchmaking factors of Battlefield 6 are expected to vary depending on the game mode and the number of players. However, in April 2025, David Sirland, one of the lead developers behind Battlefield 6, stated that the skill factor would be negligible (via Insider-Gaming).
The top priorities in matchmaking are the ping and the time until the game starts. The goal is to have the server start “as quickly as possible” in a game with 64 players.
The skill factor is important to create balanced teams and to avoid all strong players being in one team. However, Battlefield has been doing this since they started offering matchmaking. Battlefield 6, however, does not use aggressive SBMM.
So it could be that in the larger modes with 64 players, you will experience a lesser focus on skill in matchmaking than in the much smaller Team Deathmatch rounds.
What does this mean for matchmaking? If the skill factor in matchmaking is not taken more into account than, for example, in Battlefield 2042 and is truly negligible, then that should not be a problem.
In Battlefield 2042, SBMM is not as aggressive as in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, where the best players constantly face each other. There, the skill factor plays such a minor role that the matchmaking was the reason why I actually had fun with the game for a while: Battlefield 2042 is finally fun after 1.5 years because I can now destroy noobs
