Everything About Apex Legends Matchmaking: How It Works In 2026

Apex Legends ranked matchmaking changed again in Season 31, Cipher, which launched on November 3, 2026. Every ranked lobby now has a Lobby Tier that lowers or raises the entry cost for squads well below or above it, and Diamond and higher matches ban two Legends before the drop. A bigger overhaul with new ranks is planned for Season 32 in early 2027.

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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How The Current Apex Matchmaking Took Shape: Season 20 Updates

First up, since Season 20, ranked matchmaking has been based mainly on RP rather than MMR. This expanded the player pool you got matched with, as long as your RP levels were similar. Queue times dropped noticeably as a result.

At the start of Season 20, ranks were completely reset with no provisional matches. Mid-season splits also returned, dropping your rank by 6 tiers. This kept progression moving along nicely.

Now, for the juicy parts. In Season 20, kills and combat became weighted much more heavily in the new RP scoring. Each kill or assist was worth more the higher your squad placed, from 10 RP outside the top 10 up to 26 RP for the winning squad. High risk, high reward baby!

Placement RP was still a factor but to a lesser extent, with 0 RP for 14th-20th place and a cap of 125 RP for a win. Here are the Season 20 values:

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

These were the Season 20 values. Placement and kill RP have been adjusted since, so check our Apex ranked system guide for current numbers. 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 sounded great to me. Way more emphasis on fighting and skills, less camping for placement. But did they work in practice?

Community Feedback on the Season 20 Matchmaking System

Around Season 20, many Apex Legends players felt that matchmaking had made the game unplayable. Despite hopes that Season 20 would improve the skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) system, public matches still had skill disparities two weeks into the season, which frustrated players.

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

• Players found it extremely frustrating to be matched with random teammates who hot dropped, died quickly and left. Being consistently paired with such teammates made the game feel unplayable.
• Many casual players stopped playing trios and duos and switched to Apex’s rotating Mixtape modes like Gun Run and Control, which had more randomized matchmaking.

Apex Legends: Matchmaking Update 2024

On December 18, 2024, Respawn introduced a new matchmaking system designed to enhance gameplay by pairing players of similar skill levels. This system moved beyond traditional metrics like Kill/Death Ratio (KDR) to assess player performance more comprehensively. A key component of this update was 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, the update made bespoke changes to tailor skill assessments for different game modes. For instance, in smaller team modes, damage output over multiple matches became a significant factor in determining skill, while Battle Royale modes used a Matchmaking Rating (MMR) that considers squad eliminations and placements relative to opponents’ skills. Ranked matches began correlating 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 were refined to reduce skill-mixing and improve the overall ranked experience.

Transparency and player engagement were central to these updates. The new pre-match skill displays in ranked modes helped 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 goal was 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. At the time, the development team said it was dedicated to improving matchmaking systems, fostering trust, and maintaining open communication with the community to keep the game both fair and enjoyable.

Matchmaking In Season 31 (And What Season 32 Will Change)

As of Season 31, Cipher (November 2026), the CWMM system described above is still live across game modes, and ranked matchmaking still correlates player skill with RP. One rule worth remembering: premade ranked squads must be within two ranks of each other, which keeps boosting in check. You can read more in our Apex ranked system guide.

Season 31 changed how ranked lobbies are built. Each squad gets a Squad Tier based on its average RP, and in a premade squad everyone counts as having the group’s highest RP. Each lobby gets a Lobby Tier, the median of all Squad Tiers. Squads two or more tiers below it play a Challenger match and pay 30% less RP to enter, and squads two or more tiers above it play a Goliath match and pay 50% more. Matches with Diamond or higher players also have a ban phase that removes two Legends. In Season 32 (early 2027), Respawn plans new ranks (Iron, Emerald and Grandmaster) and separate Open and Pro-Am leagues, and our new Apex season roundup tracks the details.

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 used the bucket approach until 2023, when Respawn moved to dynamic matching based on each player’s chance of winning.

• 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, it only selects players who made it into the match and are, therefore, similarly skilled.

Calculating A Squad’s Effective Skill

Before 2023, the Apex matchmaking system divided all players into four categories. The algorithm ranked users based on their win/loss streak and assigned a skill rating from 1 to 10, and this score could change throughout the day based on successes and failures in matches.

Under that older system, the matchmaker found at least 60 players who had started searching for a match, in both Ranked and Pubs. Trios were added to the lobby first, then duos, and only then singles. When distributing players, the system only took into account the skill rating of the strongest player in the group.

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

The situation with Apex SBMM changed a little when players were selected one squad at a time. For example, in ranked matches, due to Apex ranked matchmaking, singles were matched as close as possible to their own rating. But in ordinary public matches, the Apex SBMM system tried to balance the squads, so one team could have players with ratings of both 1 and 9.

Obviously, this approach made life difficult for beginners. Since there were fewer of them than players with an average rating, low-rated users were often forced to play with more experienced opponents. In Season 31 ranked, a squad’s tier is based on its average RP, and in a premade squad everyone counts as having the group’s highest RP.

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 streams start to look alike, 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.

How Apex SBMM Changed In 2023: Win-Probability Matching

Respawn’s 2023 SBMM update made the algorithm look beyond skill rating. It calculated each player’s chance of winning against the opponents and filled lobbies so that the probability of winning was close to 50% for each.

Players were no longer pre-categorized, and the algorithm selected them dynamically. In tests, the waiting time for matchmaking for players with a high skill level did not exceed 5 minutes. This approach was meant to lower the chance of a player landing in a lobby with much more experienced users.

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

While Apex Legends matchmaking keeps changing season to season 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!

Skip The Matchmaking Lottery: Join Our Discord And Add Scout

The best fix for frustrating matchmaking is a consistent squad. Join the GameTree Discord server to find Apex teammates who match your skill level and playstyle instead of rolling the dice on randoms.

And if you have your own Discord server, add Scout, the GameTree LFG bot. Scout uses personality-based matching to pair compatible teammates: type /lfg and it assembles the squad and creates private voice and text channels automatically.

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 the hearts of 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.