How Warzone Matchmaking and SBMM Work in 2026
“Is SBMM gone?” is the question Warzone players have been asking since late 2025, and a lot of the answers online are either out of date or guesses. The short version: skill-based matchmaking in Warzone wasn’t deleted. It was turned down. Since Season 01 of Black Ops 7 in December 2025, Warzone’s non-Casual modes have used Open Matchmaking, where skill is minimally considered, and Ranked is still built on skill and rank.
That change is real, and it matters. But it doesn’t mean every lobby is now random, or that who’s in your party stopped counting. This guide covers what actually changed, where skill-based matchmaking lives now, why your lobbies swing from one match to the next, and an honest answer to the obvious question for a service like ours: if SBMM is gone, why would anyone pay for 2boxing?
What Open Matchmaking changed in Warzone
Open Matchmaking arrived in Warzone with Black Ops 7 Season 01 in December 2025. Activision’s patch notes describe it as matchmaking where skill is minimally considered, applied to every non-Casual mode on the Warzone playlist: Battle Royale, Resurgence and the rest. Casual modes were left out.
The rollout wasn’t uniform, either. Warzone developer Raven Software said it would closely watch matchmaking data region by region during the first few weeks of the season, to decide whether any per-region adjustments were needed. At the start of Season 01, only Europe and North America had every squad size in core Battle Royale and Resurgence; other regions started with Quads.
Multiplayer took its own path. Black Ops 7 Multiplayer launched with Open Matchmaking in November 2025, and in Season 05 (July 2026) its Quick Play, Black Ops Classic and Party Games playlists moved to a new system inspired by Black Ops 1 and 2, with Open playlists staying available. That announcement covered Multiplayer playlists only.
On the Warzone side, the one official non-Ranked matchmaking change we’ve found since Season 01 is a regional test, announced in March 2026, that brought AI players into select Black Ops Royale lobbies in Europe and the Middle East.
“Minimally considered” is not “off”
The wording matters. Minimally considered means skill still has a seat at the table; it just carries less weight than it used to. The official Call of Duty account made the wider point in August 2026, while explaining its Multiplayer matchmaking changes: every game in the series, Black Ops 1 and 2 included, has had matchmaking that considers skill.
The same statement made a second point that helps explain the lobby-to-lobby variance players notice: matchmaking has never been a single switch. Location, time of day, playlist, party composition, platform, crossplay settings and player population all shape how a lobby gets built, and connection stays a top priority.
Where skill-based matchmaking still lives
If you want to know where skill counts most in Warzone right now, the answer is Ranked. It’s also worth saying plainly: 2boxing and 3boxing do nothing in Ranked. If Ranked is all you play, Zerobox isn’t the right tool for you.
Here is how Warzone’s playlists break down today:
- Battle Royale, Resurgence and the other non-Casual modes: Open Matchmaking with skill minimally considered, introduced in Season 01 (December 2025). Some Black Ops Royale lobbies in Europe and the Middle East have also been used to test AI players.
- Casual modes (Battle Royale Casual and Resurgence Casual): excluded from Open Matchmaking, with AI-controlled players mixed into the lobby.
- Ranked: built on skill and rank. Season 04 (June 2026) reconfigured Ranked matchmaking to enforce its skill brackets more consistently.
Why your lobbies swing from match to match
Even with skill turned down, no two searches are built the same way. The same squad can get a very different lobby late at night than at peak hours, simply because a different pool of players is searching.
Your own form feeds in too: in a 2024 matchmaking blog about Multiplayer, Activision said skill is measured from kills, deaths, wins, losses, mode choice and recent matches. It hasn’t published the same detail for Warzone.
One thing that shouldn’t move your lobbies is who you are. In that same 2024 blog, Activision said money spent doesn’t factor into matchmaking, and that it doesn’t change matchmaking based on who owns an account, outside private events. Whatever makes a streamer’s lobby look easier, it isn’t a creator setting. Our streamer lobbies guide covers what actually does.
Activision’s 2024 matchmaking white paper was written about core Multiplayer rather than Warzone, but it’s the most detailed public account of how Call of Duty builds lobbies. Four of its points help explain the swings:
- Connection comes first and time to match second. Skill and the other factors sit behind those two.
- A party is treated as one unit, and lobbies are built to keep the average skill of the parties in them close together.
- Skill limits loosen the longer a search runs, and they loosen faster than ping limits do.
- How far they loosen depends on the mode and on how many people are playing in your region at that moment.
If SBMM is gone, why pay for 2boxing?
It’s a fair question, so here’s the straight answer. Skill carries less weight in Warzone’s non-Ranked, non-Casual modes than it did before Season 01. That’s what Open Matchmaking means.
But minimally considered isn’t zero, and party composition is one of the factors Activision itself lists as shaping a lobby. That’s the lever 2boxing and 3boxing pull.
Matchmaking looks at your whole party (the same reason your lower-skilled friend gets stomped when you party up), so queueing with one or two extra accounts that have a very low K/D pulls you toward easier lobbies, often called streamer lobbies.
Our accounts are manually played to keep their K/D extremely low, and they back out before the match starts, so the match itself is yours to play.
What we can’t do is control the rest of the list. Connection, time of day, region population and the playlist you pick all shape the lobby too, and we have no direct control over the game’s matchmaking. So lobby difficulty will still vary, for everyone, and with Zerobox too.
If you’re new to the method, 2boxing and 3boxing explained covers how it works and how the automated version differs from doing it yourself.
What about Modern Warfare 4?
Modern Warfare 4 (MW4) launches on October 23, 2026, and Activision has said Warzone takes on its content and progression from MW4’s first season. What that means for Warzone’s matchmaking hasn’t been announced.
The MW4 Multiplayer beta tested both approaches: the newer system Black Ops 7 Multiplayer moved to in Season 05, with Open playlists running alongside it. Activision hasn’t confirmed what MW4 Multiplayer will use at launch, so anything claiming otherwise is ahead of the facts. We’ll update this guide when there’s something official.
On our side, we’ll support Modern Warfare 4 Multiplayer from its launch day, October 23, alongside the Warzone modes we already cover.
Common questions
Does Warzone still have SBMM in 2026?
Yes, in a reduced form. Since Season 01 of Black Ops 7 (December 2025), Warzone’s non-Casual modes have used Open Matchmaking, where skill is minimally considered. Ranked is still built on skill and rank, and Activision has said every Call of Duty has had matchmaking that considers skill.
Is SBMM only in Ranked now?
Ranked is where skill counts most. In Warzone’s other non-Casual modes, skill is minimally considered rather than switched off, and Activision hasn’t said how much weight it carries. Casual modes sit outside Open Matchmaking altogether.
Does 2boxing still work with Open Matchmaking?
Party composition is still one of the factors Activision lists as shaping a lobby, and that’s what 2boxing and 3boxing work on. We influence matchmaking, but we can’t promise an easier lobby every game. 2boxing and 3boxing explained goes deeper.
Why are some of my Warzone lobbies so much harder than others?
Activision’s published research on core Multiplayer says matchmaking puts connection first and time to match second, and that skill limits loosen the longer a search runs and depend on how many people are playing in your region. Time of day, playlist, platform, crossplay settings and party composition shape lobbies too, so difficulty varies from one match to the next, with or without 2boxing.
Will Modern Warfare 4 change Warzone matchmaking?
It hasn’t been announced. MW4 launches October 23, 2026, and Warzone takes on MW4 content from MW4’s first season. The MW4 Multiplayer beta tested both the newer matchmaking system and Open playlists, and we’ll update this guide once Activision confirms what launches.