New Apex Legends Update for April 2026 Makes Changes to Matchmaking

Respawn Entertainment has just rolled out a new update for Apex Legends, making some changes that should improve the gameplay experience for players. While this latest Apex Legends update does not include new content, it resolves a number of bugs and adjusts matchmaking to potentially level the playing field in battle royale lobbies.

The last few weeks have been an exciting time for Apex Legends players. On March 10, the developer released the Apex Legends x Gundam Event, which brought a limited-time version of Wildcard, along with many new cosmetics based on the anime. The momentum continued at the end of the month, as the mid-season update for Apex Legends was released, buffing Gibraltar, Wraith, and Wattson, in addition to making many other alterations to the battle royale. Following this major update, the Aftershock Event launched, giving fans back-to-back events in the game. While Season 29 is already on the horizon, smaller updates to improve the battle royale continue to roll out.

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Apex Legends Update Makes Changes to Matchmaking in Ranked and Pubs

The most recent of these patches was released on April 14 and brought some needed bug fixes to the game. According to the patch notes, things like Valkyrie’s jetpack handles not displaying correctly and Hardlight audio errors related to Wattson have been resolved. Furthermore, the patch included stability improvements for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Apex Legends. However, what many players will find more exciting are the matchmaking changes. Specifically, the developer noted that maximum queue times have been “slightly” increased for higher-skilled players in Ranked and pubs. This change aims to create more evenly matched lobbies at all skill levels.

It will be interesting to see the impact that these changes could have on battle royale lobbies moving forward. Players on social media hope that longer queue times could alleviate some of the issues with unbalanced matchmaking. However, others fear that an increased wait time could become frustrating for pubs, given the casual jump-in and jump-out nature of the mode.

Besides adjustments to queue times and various bug fixes, this April update for Apex Legends also made a change to the Ranked tier distribution charts for Drop Zone Ranked matches. Notably, the charts now display the ranking of squads instead of individual players. Respawn also noted that a four-hour ranked map rotation schedule was being tested in East Asia. This test will run for the remainder of the second split of Season 28. Depending on the results of the test, it could mean players in all regions could get to play on different Apex Legends maps in Ranked more often throughout a split, which could prevent things from getting stale.

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Hopefully, the changes outlined in the most recent Apex Legends patch will make the game better for fans. Like other popular battle royale games, matchmaking has always been a point of contention among players, so Respawn has regularly looked to tweak things as needed. It is possible that even more changes could occur in Season 29, but the community will have to wait and see what is in store on that front.

Apex Legends Update for April 14 – Patch Notes

Hey all, we have made the following changes!

✅FIXED:

Catalyst’s Toxic Empress skin now has the appropriate glow visual effects, in-match
Valkyrie’s jetpack handles are no longer missing in specific scenarios
Fuse’s Knuckle Cluster holder is now properly displayed
Wattson players will no longer hear Hardlight rebuilding and being destroyed as a result of her tactical/ultimate placement in the ring
Game stability improvements on the Switch 2

We are also making the following changes to matchmaking in an effort to provide the best possible match quality for players:

🛠️ADJUSTED:

We are increasing maximum queue times slightly for players at the higher end of Ranked and pubs. Our goal is tighter skill bands and more competitive games across the board.
For Drop Zone Ranked matches, we will be displaying Ranked tier distribution charts of squads, not individual players consistent with non-Drop Zone lobbies.

📋TESTING:

We are testing a 4 hour Ranked map rotation schedule in East Asia for the rest of the split. *We do not recommend changing servers as it will result in much higher pings.