What does SBMM mean in gaming? answered

Various terms are constantly being thrown around as you play, which can sometimes make things hard to follow. If you play a competitive game, you’ve probably heard people mention the letters SBMM. You’ve probably heard this from people talking about the online in-game experience. Here’s what SBMM means in gaming.

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What does SBMM stand for in video games?

SBMM is an acronym for skill-based matchmaking. This is a term to describe how the game decides to match you with other players. Regardless of the type of calculations it uses and prioritizes on its side, the game will match you with other players within the same parameters. The developers built this into their games to ensure you get the fairest possible match. The goal is to prevent anyone from absolutely dominating less experienced and talented players. Every game that has SBMM handles it differently.

Recently, SBMM has become a hot topic in gaming because some streamers and other gamers don’t like it in games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. While the vast majority of players probably won’t notice a huge difference when it comes to skill-based matchmaking, it does have a significant impact on the high-level members of the community. For starters, it can significantly increase wait times to get into a game if you’re in the upper league of players. The game tries to find fair play, but there just aren’t many that can compete with them.

Another reason people have a problem with this is that it encourages you to take your game very seriously at all times. Often games implement it throughout their matchmaking, whether it’s a ranked mode or not. Because of this, playing with friends of different skill levels can lead to some one-sided team games and make certain players feel like they always have to do their best to win.

While some players see the downsides in SBMM, there are some positives. As mentioned above, creating fairer games is a good goal. There are some people who don’t like SBMM just because they want to dominate games against new players. Wherever you fall on the topic, skill-based matchmaking is probably not in its final form, but it’s not going anywhere anytime soon either.