A new patch for Escape From Tarkov is set to arrive later today with just a single change, but it's a big one, as the entire matchmaking system is being overhauled.

The patch, which was confirmed on the official Escape From Tarkov social media channels, will be installed in the next few hours, and will bring the arrival of new matchmaking systems that have recently been tested on the ETS private servers.

The patch installation has just begun, which is expected to take around six hours. During this time you will not be able to play Escape From Tarkov as the servers will be down. The Escape From Tarkov servers should be back up around 01:00 PM GMT / 08:00 AM EST.

We don't know too much about the specifics of the changes, with only some vague language being used when this new matchmaking system was tested on the test environment. However, we know the goal of the update is to reduce the time it takes for you to find a raid and load in, as well as reduce the chances of getting an error during the matchmaking and load in process. While not massively common, losing your kit due to a loading error is very frustrating in a game like Tarkov, so any improvements to reduce the chances of that happening are always going to be a positive.

However, I am a bit surprised at the speed this update has arrived in the live game after being on the test servers. It was only a few days ago the test began, with the Halloween event being extended to try to entice players to test this update. The fact it has arrived so soon suggests to me there is a chance player numbers were not as high as they needed to be to properly test the feature, so a public rollout is being used as a bit of a test. This is just speculation, it could be working perfectly, but with the Unity 2022 update being tested for what will eventually be months, this seems like a suspiciously quick process.

I'm also surprised this change isn't being left until the next Tarkov wipe, which is likely just over a month away. We know the wipe is expected around the end of the year, and will include some major changes such as a rework to the best Tarkov map, the big engine upgrade and a lot more. While it's nice to get new Tarkov updates, unless this is a major quality of life update in terms of matchmaking, it might have been easier to push this back a month and avoid even more server downtime.