Apex Legends Matchmaking Update Finally Keeps Predator Players Out of Your Games (For Now)

Hit battle royale shooter Apex Legends has never been a stranger to change. Since its surprise shadow launch in 2019, Respawn Entertainment’s free-to-play first-person shooter has continually evolved through seasonal updates, meta shifts, and system overhauls, many of which were requested via the playerbase. Whether you’re a casual player or an aspiring Ranked grinder, Apex Legends has long attempted to find the right balance between fast-paced gameplay and fair matchmaking. And now, after years of community outcry, yet another of the community’s most requested Ranked adjustments is finally being tested live in-game: keeping top-tier Predator players out of lower-ranked lobbies.

Announced via an official Steam update, Respawn has initiated a matchmaking experiment that restricts Masters and Apex Predator players from queuing with anyone below Diamond 1 in Ranked. This change is being tested across all regions and platforms at the same time, and according to Respawn, the goal is simple: to improve Ranked matches by keeping elite players at the very top so they cannot interfere with lower-Ranked sessions.

“The goal of this test is to improve the skill distribution across Ranked matches. We’ve chosen to run this test towards the end of the season so that we have a healthy population of Masters and Predator players in Ranked queues,” stated Respawn Entertainment via their update blog on Steam.

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This means the majority of players, especially those in lower Diamond and below, will no longer be dropped into lobbies with the most deadly competitors in the game. As stated earlier, this is one of the most requested changes by the Apex Legends community, and with Respawn having a relatively strong track record of listening to their playerbase, this change is sure to win them more goodwill points.

The Apex Legends team also emphasized their desire for community feedback during this period. While internal data gathering will play a major role in determining the success of the trial, player feedback will be just as important and valuable.

“Make sure to hop in the game and let us know how the changes feel,” the post urges.

Once the test concludes, Respawn promises a follow-up report detailing the results and outlining any potential changes that could become permanent as a result of the gathered data. For clarity, this adjustment targets a long-standing annoyance in the Apex Legends competitive ecosystem, specifically with Ranked: the notion of being “farmed” by players far above your skill level. By isolating the game’s most elite players, Respawn hopes to return Ranked matches to a much more even playing field, where progression reflects improvement, and not just survival.

Apex Legends is a live-service, team-based, battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment, the developers behind the Titanfall franchise. Set in the fabled universe, players choose between a healthy selection of unique characters, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles, all to compete for victory. Apex Legends remains one of the most active battle royale titles worldwide, constantly receiving significant seasonal content drops to keep the title relevant.

More information on this test will likely be shared in the future in a post-mortem, so we’ll see then if this is something that sticks around.