Huge Apex Legends Matchmaking Changes — Full Patch Notes
Apex Legends has been a hot topic in the FPS sphere for over five years, and Respawn has continued to add improvements and changes throughout its lifespan. Though dozens of fun-filled updates have been implemented, Apex continues to evolve even in 2024, plus more exciting content is set to dive into the battle royale in 2025 and beyond.
RELATED: Winter's Haunt Event Release Date, Free Rewards, & More
There are many ways Apex Legends has evolved throughout the last year, including how ranked matchmaking places players into matches. Everyone wants to play on a fair battlefield, which is why Respawn just released an update explaining how matchmaking works in 2024 throughout all of the explosive game modes in Apex Legends.
Why is Matchmaking Being Updated in Apex Legends?
Matchmaking is one of the most important features in any online video game, especially for a popular battle royale like Apex Legends. While a game may have millions of players, they aren't all of the same skill level. As such, Respawn is trying to update its matchmaking systems annually to account for new content and an ever-evolving player base.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Season 23 of Apex Legends
One of the key highlights of the 2024 Matchmaking Update was a section that discussed player suggestions that haven't been implemented yet and their future plans for matchmaking ideas. It seems Respawn took their fan base very seriously in 2024 and aimed to fix issues that community members had been reporting.
Everything in the 2024 Matchmaking Update Notes
Matchmaking is regularly updated in all live-service games to allow for a better user experience while battling it out with other skilled competitors. Although balancing each Legend is a top priority, the match you're placed inside of will truly determine whether you survive or die.
The most notable feature explained in the 2024 Matchmaking Update is Continuous Window Matchmaking, which implements multiple mechanics that help create a consistent flow of matches for all players regardless of external factors, such as which mode you're playing or the time of day.
Other changes to matchmaking include the addition of Ranked Pre-Match Skill Display and even an updated measurement system for player ranks. Here's everything from today's developer update about how ranked matchmaking has changed in 2024. If you'd like to look for yourself, here is the official list of Matchmaking Update Notes from Respawn.
Current Tech Systems
- Introduction of Continuous Window Matchmaking (CWMM)
- Bespoke changes to game modes, including Ranked
Continuous Window Matchmaking
Live games need a lot of players at any time of the day in order to form balanced matches. Populations can shift based on time of day, region, and game mode, so we invested a lot in a dynamic system capable of predicting and adapting to the current live population. This has allowed us to create a dynamic balance between queue times and how wide the skill gap is for the lobby, which is then optimized against overall live population, aka Continuous Window Matchmaking (CWMM).
Overall, CWMM provides an advantage in that our matchmaking is more consistent during both natural periods of lower server population and during periods of high server populations.
CWMM has limits in how far and quickly it’s allowed to adapt, which are set as a result of continued analysis and assessment. This means that we can effectively cap both the time a player will wait in queue and also how wide the skill can be in any given lobby; these are the ‘rails’ we establish for the system to work within.
From metas to playstyles to growing skills, no two seasons are alike for each player. We’re constantly evaluating and adjusting those data ‘rails’ to keep the majority of matchmaking experiences within our desired design goals. All game modes make use of CWMM in order to match players with the closest skill values possible, though how we determine the skill value can be different depending on the mode.
Ranked Pre-Match Skill Display
This launched with From the Rift and has become a tangible means for players to understand the range of ranks they’re seeing in the lobby. Some of these are due to pre-made squads, but some screenshots have helped us with investigations and adjustments.
Matchmaking Game Mode Changes
As CWMM came online, we also made changes to how we approach measuring and using a value for a player’s skill. This skill measurement is different between game modes, as is how we decide to update the skill value based on a player’s performance.
Damage Model
Measuring damage output is a reliable way to determine skill when it’s done over a number of matches. It’s a very good system for game modes that have a smaller number of teams and players as damage output is more consistent. All players currently start with a matchmaking ‘skill’ value of 0 for their very first match of a mode that uses this model. Then the player plays the match, (hopefully) deals damage, and then their skill value updates once the match is completed.
The skill value consists of 2 parts:
- Average damage done by players historically, which makes up the majority of the overall value
- Damage from your last match, which makes up a small part of the value
With only a small part coming from your most recent match, the overall skill value becomes fairly stable over a number of matches. This allows exceptional matches to change the outcome more significantly, but not to the point of wild swings. The Damage Model skill value is used when matching in Mixtape (each Mixtape mode has an independent skill value) and certain non-BR LTMs.
Matchmaking Rating Model
Over time, the team determined that the damage model could be improved upon as Battle Royales have more nuance to being ‘skilled’ than pure damage output. A new set of criteria were developed to establish skill values and when players would get updates to their overall skill value.
For all BR modes, an update to your MMR is triggered when your squad knocks or kills a player in another squad. Both squads are then flagged for a skill update because the eliminated squad is likely to leave the in-progress match after elimination. We want to make sure that you can jump right back into another game with an updated skill value for your next match.
What determines the magnitude of your skill change is your relative placement in a match compared to the teams you had a significant encounter with (knock or kill) and the skill of the other squad. MMR is a value that falls within a fairly granular range. This is also why CWMM works so well: it starts grabbing those with the closest values of skill when trying to fill a lobby. Matches based on skill will result in fairer games when skill values are specific and granular.
It’s a simple system that works effectively and captures what we think are the most important measures of skill in BR—fighting, surviving and high placement. This model is used in all BR modes except for Ranked.
RP Model
For Ranked matches, a player’s Ranked Points (RP) value is used for matching players. This was reimplemented in Season 20 as a response to player dissatisfaction of being a high MMR player fighting against other high MMR players (as MM tries to match closest skill value), but in a low rank tier lobby like Bronze.
This combo of using MMR for matching while using RP to determine the progression for players broke the existing player expectation that ‘Bronze lobbies should be easy’ and ‘Masters lobbies should be hard.’ In response, we linked RP and skill, and we are now using RP for matchmaking. There is a loose correlation between actual skill (as measured in MMR) and a player’s RP value. This works fine when a player has plateaued in their seasonal Ranked journey (i.e. when their ‘skill value’ has stabilized for the season), but that isn’t always the case.
This becomes challenging when a high skill player starts their Ranked journey at an RP of 1, and they’re matching mostly with other players that have a very low RP value. That player will quickly stomp their way to higher ranks and make the experience less enjoyable for those getting stomped. It also gives the perception that matchmaking is totally broken, and lowers those players’ trust in Apex and their desire to keep playing.
In the past few seasons, the ‘RP Reset’ has been adjusted in an attempt to keep similarly-skilled players together at the start of the season, reducing skill-mixing. We are also re-evaluating Provisional Matches as a possible solution to initial Division and Tier placement, preventing some of that initial skill mixing while also making it harder for smurf accounts.
As you may know, your RP value gets updated when you finish each match. That updated value is what is used for your next match, so keep requeuing and hit your best tier!
Michael Caruso is a journalist of five years who works to share his passion for gaming with the world. Throughout his career, Michael has written for various video game and news publications, focusing his writing on entertainment and the well-being of the environment. When Michael isn't writing, he can be found playing his guitar or immersed in a virtual world.