Recently news about Fortnite has led to a search of interest in what exactly SBMM is, so in this article, we will do our best to explain that, and why some people don’t enjoy it. SBMM, or skill-based matchmaking, is when a game tries to put people of equal skill levels into a game together. So, if you are very bad at a game, you will be matched up with other players who are very bad, if you are very good, you will be matched up against players who are also very good.
SBMM was brought in when the game switched over to Chapter 2, and not everyone was happy about it. After a lot of attempts to tweak it by Epic, and a lot of complaints from players, SBMM is now only a thing in Duos and has been removed from the Squads playlist.
The reaction to SBMM was split, with lower-tier players just being happy not to get stomped, but the very players suddenly found that every game was a complete sweat-fest, and it all felt much more like competitive play than a casual game mode they could enjoy when they were not taking on people for prize money.
SBMM will always be a contentious issue for players, as it is impossible to have people of different skill levels in a game together and have everyone enjoy the experience. A streamer or content creator might want as many easy games as possible to get interesting footage, or just to score high kill games on stream, while the people they are effectively farming want to be able to try and get better by taking on people their own skill level, or who are just a little bit better than they are.
It is also very easy to understand the issue for higher skilled players who might want just to be able to play a game without needing to be at 100 percent all the time. It’s an awkward issue for Epic, or any developer, to try and deal with in a way that keeps everyone happy.
For now, it seems like Duos will be the only part of Fortnite with SBMM, but we will update this article if anything changes.
