Black Ops 6 players are quitting games more than ever as SBMM runs rampant
ActivisionBlack Ops 6 players are quitting games more frequently than ever in response to SBMM placing them in difficult lobbies, with the community now going as far as to encourage others to do the same.
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), sometimes referred to as engagement-optimized matchmaking (EOMM), is a system Call of Duty utilizes that aims to place players in games closer to their skill level. It has always existed in some capacity but was drastically ramped up from Modern Warfare (2019) onward.
Over five years after this change, many players have grown tired of the matchmaking and are no longer hesitating to leave games and requeue whenever things get too challenging.
Expressing this sentiment and encouraging others to do the same, a post on r/BlackOps6 stated, “If EOMM decided it’s your turn to suffer, just leave every single lobby until you find that one. Don’t play Activision sweaty games. Just quit,” with this receiving over 1,000 upvotes.
Others were quick to concur, with the thread’s most upvoted reply reading, “My experience significantly improved once I started leaving games once I detected it was one of those,” and another user saying, “I think we can all agree that you should quit anything even remotely challenging.”
As always, the topic proved divisive with others criticizing the post responding, “Pathetic attitude, and sh*tty for your teammates,” as well as “Nah, I’d just rather play and deal with whatever challenge I’m put up against,” showing that anti-SBMM stances are not universal even if they did make up the majority of posts in this particular thread.
Activision won’t be removing SBMM anytime soon
Regardless of whether you want SBMM removed or just made more lenient, neither outcome looks likely to happen anytime soon.
ActivisionActivision posted a lengthy breakdown of Call of Duty’s matchmaking back in July 2024 following a series of secret tests in Modern Warfare 3 where they disabled SBMM entirely.
In this report, Activision concluded that “80-90% of players experience better end-of-match placement, stick with the game longer and quit matches less frequently” when skill is utilized in matchmaking. In other words, SBMM raises retention rates and makes players perform better on average.
However, these findings do not match the concerns of the community that are getting more vocal every day. If these complaints ever produce results, it is difficult to say, but Activision investigating this at least confirms they are aware that not everyone enjoys the system.
If there has ever been a time for change, it’s right now, as Black Ops 6 has been bleeding players. On December 24, the peak player count hit as low as 92,348 on Steam. The Double XP weekend saw this jump to 118,848, but even this pales in comparison to the nearly 200,000 concurrent players just a month prior and is dwarfed by the 314,334 in early November.