Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment showed off the results of a new matchmaking test today that looks to improve players’ battle royale experience.
In a tweet shared to the official Respawn Twitter account at around 3:30pm CT this afternoon, the developer revealed that it tested an adjustment to Apex‘s matchmaking in one specific region during the holiday season. The goal of the test was to create more balanced matchmaking for players. While it didn’t share any specific information about what changes were made, Respawn did reveal that it will be sharing a blog post with additional information soon.
It appears as though Respawn is measuring match balance at least in part by the number of players in any given match who have a kill. An attached graph showed the percentage of players with at least one kill in a battle royale match in the test region as compared to two other regions, which appear to be acting as the control group. The test region had a significantly higher percentage of players with at least one kill than the two control regions. It’s impossible to tell exactly what the difference between the two groups is since there were no numbers on the graph’s Y axis for scale, but the difference is obvious.
Respawn has shared previously that matchmaking changes are on the way, but players have been frustrated with what they see as a lack of transparency on the company’s part. Some are frustrated that the game uses skill-based matchmaking, a system that places players in lobbies with others of similar skill levels. With this most recent update from the company, it appears as though the future looks promising for players who are tired of dealing with rough lobbies.
