Everything About Apex Legends Matchmaking: How It Works And Features To Expect

by  John Uke Last update: December 19, 2024

Get ready for some massive ranked changes in Apex Legends folks. After tons of feedback from the community, it looks like Respawn is finally overhauling the ranked system to make it way more fair and rewarding.

As a big fan of Apex Legends, I’m thrilled to tell you more about its skill-based matchmaking. Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale games right now. To match players of almost the same skill level for a battle, there’s the Apex matchmaking system, which is kind of controversial.

However, many gamers complain about the unfair system and long queues of players waiting in the lobby to start a battle. So, in this article, I decided to dive into the Apex Legends SBMM and explain how it works. 

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Apex Matchmaking Season 20 Updates

First up, matchmaking will now be based mainly on a revamped RP system rather than MMR. This should expand the player pool you get matched with as long as your RP levels are similar. Queue times should be lower too.

At the start of the season, your rank will be completely reset with no provisional matches. Mid-season splits are also back, dropping your rank by 6 tiers. This will keep progression moving along nicely.

Now, for the juicy parts. Kills and combat are going to be weighted much more heavily in the new RP scoring. We’re talking up to 26 RP for a win and 12 RP per kill in the top 10. High risk, high reward baby!

Placement RP is still a factor but to a lesser extent. Expect 0 RP for 14th-20th place and capped at 125 RP for a win. Here’s a more detailed list:

• 20th-14th: 0
• 13th-11th: 5
• 10th-9th: 10
• 8th-7th: 20
• 6th: 30
• 5th: 45
• 4th: 55
•  3rd: 70
• 2nd: 95
• 1st: 125

To maximize gains, focus on combat RP through kills/assists, bonus RP by taking out higher ranks and streaks, and placement RP as the cherry on top.

Overall, these changes sound great to me. Way more emphasis on fighting and skills, less camping for placement. But is it so in reality?

Community Feedback on the New Matchmaking System

Many Apex Legends players feel that matchmaking has made the game unplayable in recent seasons. Despite hopes that Season 20 would improve the skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) system, public matches still suffer from skill disparities after two weeks, frustrating players.

On the Apex Legends subreddit, and on EA feedback pages, users complain of unfair matchups solo queuing against premade stacked teams, especially higher ranked players stomping on lower tiers due to SBMM issues.

• Players find it extremely frustrating getting matched with random teammates who hot drop, die quickly, and leave, ruining the experience. Being consistently paired with such teammates makes the game feel unplayable.
• Most casual players have stopped playing trios and duos modes, instead playing Apex’s rotating Mixtape modes like Gun Run and Control which have more randomized matchmaking.

Apex Legends: Matchmaking Update 2024

On December 18th 2024, Apex Legends™ has introduced a new matchmaking system designed to enhance gameplay by pairing players of similar skill levels. This system moves beyond traditional metrics like Kill/Death Ratio (KDR) to assess player performance more comprehensively. A key component of this update is Continuous Window Matchmaking (CWMM), a dynamic system that adapts to real-time player populations, balancing queue times and skill disparities to ensure fair matches across various game modes.

In addition to CWMM, bespoke changes have been implemented to tailor skill assessments for different game modes. For instance, in smaller team modes, damage output over multiple matches is a significant factor in determining skill, while Battle Royale modes utilize a Matchmaking Rating (MMR) that considers squad eliminations and placements relative to opponents’ skills. Ranked matches now correlate player skill with Ranked Points (RP), addressing previous concerns about mismatched skill levels in rank-based lobbies. Adjustments such as RP resets and provisional matches are being refined to reduce skill-mixing and improve the overall ranked experience.

Transparency and player engagement are central to these updates. The addition of pre-match skill displays in ranked modes helps players understand the range of skills in their lobbies, reflecting the developers’ commitment to listening to community feedback and continually refining matchmaking to meet players’ expectations. The overarching goal is to provide a balanced experience where players can hone their skills while facing appropriate challenges, fostering a mix of outcomes that encourages growth and competition. The development team remains dedicated to improving matchmaking systems, fostering trust, and maintaining open communication with the community to ensure the game remains both fair and enjoyable.

Does Apex Have Skill-Based Matchmaking?

Yes, as we’ve mentioned, there’s a matchmaking system in the game. The Apex SBMM works to ensure that there’s no big gap between the skills of players in the lobby. My first matches in the game were quite easy, but as I improved my skills, I got a better rank. So, I was put into squads with similarly skilled players.

What Is Matchmaking Exactly?

The whole Apex skill-based matchmaking may seem complicated and simple at the same time, especially for newbies. So, below, I will tell you in more detail about the progression system, skill rating, and matching.

• The progression system is a significant part of Apex Legends matchmaking. Players get rewarded by playing the game, which helps them feel like they’re improving. This system also keeps players engaged and leads to better matchmaking. 

• Skill Rating is a hidden numerical value assigned to a player based on their skill level in the game. It is determined by various factors that indicate a player’s ability to play the game. Skill rating distribution can be viewed in two ways – Continuous Gaussian distribution and Discrete Buckets. Apex Legends traditionally uses the bucket approach, but the developers say it is changing.

• And finally, we come to the matchmaking itself. The Apex matching algorithm puts together who you’ll play with. It groups players based on their skill rating to form a match. The algorithm also considers player availability in real time. 

How Does Apex Matchmaking Work?

The Apex matchmaking algorithm selects 60 players of similar skill to form a fair match. The players can be divided into two types of teams: 

1. Balanced teams with a close average skill rating. This approach is used in Pubs. 
2. Teams with similarly skilled players. This approach is used in competitive environments like Ranked. 

It’s important to note that while Apex Legends may stack teams in Ranked, they only select players who made it into the match and are, therefore, similarly skilled.

Calculating A Squad’s Effective Skill

The current Apex matchmaking system divides all players into four categories. The algorithm ranks users based on their win/loss streak and assigns a skill rating from 1 to 10. This score can change throughout the day based on successes and failures in matches.

The system finds at least 60 players who have started searching for a match (this is true for both Ranked matches and Pubs). The selection of players occurs so that trios are added to the lobby first, then the duos, and only then singles are added. When distributing, the system only takes into account the skill rating of the strongest player in the group.

That is, if your friend’s level of play is lower than yours, then you will have to carry the team. Most of the opponents will be matched to your skill level and not the average of all players on both teams.

The situation with Apex SBMM changes a little if the selection of players occurs in squads one at a time. For example, in ranked matches, due to Apex ranked matchmaking, singles with ratings from 1 to 9 will be matched as close as possible to their rating. But in ordinary public matches, the Apex SBMM system strives to balance the squads, so there will be players with ratings of both 1 and 9 on one team.

Obviously, this approach makes life difficult for beginners. Since there are fewer of them than players with an average rating, low-rated users are often forced to play with more experienced opponents.

Apex Skill-Based Matchmaking Players’ Concerns And Complaints

Despite Respawn’s attempts to improve the Apex matchmaking algorithm and give players a better understanding of how matchmaking works, many are still very disappointed.

Some comments go like this:

no sbmm, it just rbmm (rigged base match making). only way to avoid it is just play with full friend squad (or friend duo). solo-q only lead you to carry the worst possible player……….with worst case of lag that cause hit reg fail.

While others say:

This isn’t overwatch. The matchmaking is fine.

And I couldn’t agree more, the matchmaking system here is not as bad as the one in Overwatch. Since players of the same level are selected, each match resembles a grand final, with players showing their best skills in order to win. This excludes a certain element of chance and fun. Popular streamers especially suffer from this since all live streamings become similar to each other, and there are no elements of randomness.

Another problem of Apex matchmaking is that the speed of selecting new and skilled players may be different.

Due to the algorithm, you need a well-coordinated team of friends to improve your skill and show a high level of play every time. Honestly, this is almost impossible if you play alone with random players.

The Future Of Apex Legends SBMM And Their New System

Now, with the Apex SBMM update, the algorithm will analyze not just the skill rating. The system calculates the player’s chances of winning against the opponents and selects players in the lobby so that the probability of winning would be close to 50% for each.

At the same time, the players are not pre-categorized – the algorithm selects gamers dynamically. In tests, the waiting time for matchmaking for players with a high skill level did not exceed 5 minutes. This approach should minimize the likelihood that the player will end up in a lobby with more experienced users.

Tired Of Playing Alone? Find People To Play Apex Legends With

While the Apex Legends matchmaking update is still being calibrated and isn’t as fair as I’d like, I have a lot more fun playing Apex Legends with my buddies rather than solo. If you also want to assemble a well-balanced team and kick in spectacular Apex Legends matches, I recommend that you find Apex teammates on GameTree.

This is an outstanding app for gamers where you can meet other players, agree to play together and discuss the latest news about Apex Legends and other games. It is a nice and non-toxic community where I find support, amusing conversations, and players for my dream squad. Give it a try!

Final Thoughts

Being one of the best Xbox and PS5 multiplayer battle royale projects with a large community and its own unique style, Apex Legends has managed to win hearts of the gamers all over the world. Online tournaments and regular updates from the developers and a large number of regular online players indicate that everything is fine for the game and its future. Despite minor problems with Apex ranked matchmaking, the development team is constantly working on improvements to make the algorithm fairer and the matches more fun.