Modern Warfare 4 KD: why the end screen number is wrong

The number I'd been reading as my kill death ratio after every Modern Warfare 4 match wasn't my KD at all. The big figure at the bottom of the end screen is eliminations, a formula that includes assists, and my real KD has been lower the whole time. I think the system is there to make players feel better and to soften the effects of skill based matchmaking.

I know the split between real KD and the eliminations based version has been around for a while. But for a guy who's been out of the loop, this hit me in the face. I was completely clueless, and I had a different sense of my performance than what was true.

The Modern Warfare 4 end screen shows eliminations, not kills

At the end of a Modern Warfare 4 match, you get a screen with certain information. Take one of my matches in a mode where you collect money, shoot people, and the money flies out of their backpacks. I was at the top of the leaderboard with 24 kills. That number sits next to my name, with the money beside it. But at the bottom, it says 34 eliminations and 13 deaths.

My eyes go straight to that bottom line, where my name and level are. In my head, 34 was my kills. So I read it as 34 kills to 13 deaths, a 2.62 KD, top of the leaderboard, and a win. "Everything is groovy, baby." I was patting myself on the back and ready to keep playing.

Another match had the same vibe. We won, I wasn't top of the leaderboard, but I had 33 eliminations and 15 deaths, a 2.20 KD. My eyes weren't going to the 27 kills in the smaller font next to my name at the top. I'm sure the people who design these screens use test groups, focus groups and experts. It's like shopping at Walmart, where they put the candy bar at eye level for that last impulse buy. I'm sure this is the same to a degree.

How I found out my KD wasn't what I thought

I was playing and trying to get my KD above OpTic's, which was around 1.27. I was reading off that bottom number, and someone told me, "That's not your KD." I told them to stop trolling. They explained that it's eliminations, which includes assists. My brain said the guy is eliminated, so that's a kill. Then I looked at the number at the top, saw the kills didn't match the eliminations, and realized not only did I not know, but he was right.

Then I overthought it, like I do. I went to my combat record and saw my KD dropping. The last five or six matches had been sweaty, and I was trying everything just to go even. But the bottom numbers made me feel like I was at 1.5, 1.7, 2.25, so I had to be moving my average up. I think I'm at around a 1.03 KD in my combat record, which is a completely different page.

Once he told me, it made sense. My KD was going down while that elimination number was pumping me up, or pacifying me into thinking I was doing better. I didn't know I'm supposed to take the kills at the top, divide by the deaths at the bottom and do the math on the fly. There's nowhere I know of on that screen to see my actual KD for a specific match.

KD is kills versus deaths

I'm an old guy. "KD is KD. It's kills versus deaths." It's how many kills you got versus how many deaths. It doesn't factor in assists, and it isn't called something else like eliminations.

I don't know which Call of Duty first split KD and started counting assists under eliminations instead of a straight kill death ratio. I'm so far behind that I want to know when it started.

Players say Modern Warfare 4 lobbies keep getting sweatier

I'd been saying I feel like I'm grinding as hard as I can and the matches are getting harder, even in the popular playlist. In the first four days, I was rocking around a 1.8 KD and was happy. In my review, I called the popular playlist the safe place to go. But I can't change the facts. Over the last three days, everything I've played, whatever the playlist, has gotten progressively sweatier.

When I asked if it was just me, around 300 to 400 people responded, and it's not just me. One player wrote, "Thank god. I thought it was just me, too." Another said he's barely over 1 KD in Black Ops 7, after comfortably sitting at 1.7 while just messing around, playing objective and having fun. Now he's fighting just to stay above one. That's exactly my profile too.

Another player argued that pros aren't carrying 2 KDs in the SBMM era, and that after Black Ops 4, holding a 2 plus KD in Modern Warfare 2019 was impossible because matchmaking wouldn't allow it. Someone else said he's 0.87 in Modern Warfare 4 but a 1.5 player in every other Call of Duty. He's not bragging. I feel like he's being honest. Another said the elims and kills thing throws him off, because he thinks he's done well and then finds he's under 1.0. That's my biggest wonder too.

One more asked if anyone else feels the games keep getting sweatier, going from 1.3 to 1.15. I do. The more matches I play, good or bad, the more I slowly slide down, in KD and even win loss ratio. People helped me build a loadout, debating mobility and handling, and I've been working on checking every corner. I'm still trying to keep my head above water.

I'm not great at Call of Duty, but I know the fundamentals

People could say it's because I'm bad at the game, and they could be very right. But I'm not bad and I'm not great. I'm not cracked, and I'm not into the new movement. I know the fundamentals, and I have what you could call Call of Duty sense: how maps work, recognizing spawns and reading situations.

I'm definitely slower, but not to the point where I should have to be completely focused just to hold my KD or let it drop a bit. It's not enjoyable. It's not fun.

To anyone asking who cares, it's a video game: you're right. The people who care are the ones who play, who want to be in the conversation, and who responded in their hundreds. People who don't care have every right not to.

Why I think Call of Duty uses eliminations instead of kills

The easy answer, to me, is to make you feel better, whether you had a good match or a bad one. Say you go 30 and 5. Your actual KD is high and your KDE is even higher, and you're feeling yourself. But if you go an even 1.0, you're still probably going to show a 1.5, maybe up to a 2, because it includes assists.

Here's the psychology. You need to feel good to go to the next match, grind camos, play 100 matches in a row, and grind the Season 1 battle pass. If you don't, you'll find something else to play. Even a super fan who's bad six matches in a row, five days a week, will eventually quit for something that doesn't stress them out completely.

I feel like the on the nose answer is this: if the kind of player who has a hard time getting a 1.0 sees himself at 0.5 over and over, they lose that player, and that player buys battle passes, cosmetics and tracer packs. They need that player. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. This is one man giving his opinion.

Eliminations as a cushion for SBMM

In my opinion, there's a deeper layer. I think the eliminations number is a buffer, a cushion for SBMM. You're in sweaty lobbies, and if you're like me and gravitate to that bottom number, you see a 1.8. It felt hard, it took 15 minutes of everything you had, but you roll it again. In reality, your KD might have been 0.90.

To get your real KD for each match, you have to divide the top number by the bottom one in your head and track it every match. I feel like they made it so you don't bother. You just look down next to your name and your calling card, and that's all you worry about. But that isn't the whole picture of whether you're getting better.

Early Call of Duty felt different to me

I know people will argue with me, but in early Call of Duty, if you weren't good, you got smacked until you figured it out. I looked up to the guys who beat me, the ones with the emblems, going 40 and 5, killing me 22 times. I didn't want to quit, because it wasn't sweaty all the time. Some matches were fun and casual, and others had pub stompers and legends who destroyed you. That mix made you want to get better.

Now it feels like they put the boot on your neck and press a little harder every match until you tap out. That, to me, is the difference, and that's the protection I feel is happening.

Why is there no match KD on the end screen?

Is it a big deal? No. If you don't like it, don't play it. But I do like it. Some say assists show you're being a good team player. I guess you could argue that to a degree, but many assists are random.

Many OGs like me want it raw: kills and deaths. In Team Deathmatch, did I kill the other team more, which is the objective, or die more and hurt my team? That gives me a gauge for how to get better. I have my tinfoil hat on, and I think KDE exists to pacify, to make you feel better, and to deal with SBMM fallout. So why isn't actual KD on that screen too? Unless I'm missing a screen, I can see my overall KD in the combat record but not my KD match to match.