Apex Legends™: Matchmaking Test Update

Late last season, we gave you the heads up about a matchmaking test that would run until the end of Prodigy’s split 2. This was born from hearing community requests for hard-limiting who Masters players could matchmake against, so we executed on exactly that to see how it would impact our matchmaking quality and to gather additional feedback and data.

From July 28 to August 25, 2025, we created hard rules in our matchmaking configurations that only allowed Masters players to play against other Masters and Diamond I players. Diamond I players could match as normal. This test was needed not only to address some suggestions from the community, but also to gather data on this specific hard-limit to understand what type of impact it would have. 

Now that the test has concluded, we’ve compiled everything and are sharing a breakdown on our efforts and the results we’ve found.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Here’s our results from our hard-limit test that ran July 28 to August 25, 2025:

• Overall:
  • Median matchmaking times remained consistent from before the change
  • 7% increase in matchmaking queue abandonment across all regions for ≥ Diamond 1
  • Increase in average hours played from Diamond I players, but a drop for Masters players as they had much more restricted play windows
    • This is fairly common towards end of season, but the drop for Masters was larger than we typically see during this time period
  • This test provided some great learnings that will help us with potential next steps on how to further modify our matchmaking configurations over the course of a season. 
  • This test was generally well received by you, our community, with appreciation for our testing and transparency—which we’ll look to continue with any additional updates
• Our initial announcement led to some concern around longer queue times for Masters players, especially in regions and on platforms with lower populations of Masters and Diamond I players
  • That combination did end up having a negative impact as some higher tiered players had to wait extended periods during lower population times; matches did connect, but the experience fell outside of the anticipated expectations. Other regions with higher populations had healthy matchmaking during peak concurrency, but struggled to create lobbies for Masters players during off-peak times.
• Outside of the impact above, queue times for players that waited the longest had an average increase of 15 seconds for matchmaking. There was also a minute percentage where queues increased from ~4 minutes to 5-6 minutes.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NEXT?

Before we jump into potential plans for the future, here’s a rundown of our matchmaking goals for Ranked:

• Everyone should be able to find a match (even if they have to wait longer)
• Rank Tier width is prioritized over time spent waiting for a match (closer matches are more important than how long you wait)
• Increased transparency on why you’re getting matched the way you are

With those in mind, here’s what we’re working towards for our next Ranked matchmaking experiments:

• Expand the limit on who Masters can play against further into Diamond. We’ll be looking at a new set of timing rules for when Masters can expand matching into additional Diamond ranks after first waiting for other Masters and D1 matches.
• Maintain rules that prevent Masters from matching into Platinum and below (the skill gap between these is too wide to be fair).
• Looking at overall seasonal population growth curve to find the best time to enforce these rules, with considerations for players who hit Masters early in season before an optimal population for hard-limits and hitting our goals.

Look forward to additional updates from the team as we get closer to our next rollout in Showdown Split 2. As always, we appreciate your feedback and continued passion around matchmaking and all things Apex Legends.

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