Pay To Win = Anything that can be bought with real money that gives a player a statistical advantage over another player who plays less (or for free in F2P games) in any way, is pay to win.



This includes, but is not limited to:

- Boosters (XP and Currency Boosters, etc.)

- Consumables/Power-Ups[*]Buffed up "Overpowered" Items (Guns that deal extra damage, etc.)

- Paid progression (to skip grind, etc.), such as the ability to buy resources or unlocks (in PVP games, or in PVE games where the difficulty does not scale fairly/properly)
Grind in itself is often a P2W mechanic designed to force you to pay if you don't want to/or can't play a lot.

- Cosmetics, that aren't strictly cosmetic (Which is becoming more common as companies decide to rig matchmaking)
Research EOMM matchmaking, or rigged matchmaking and you may be surprised at what you find.

TBH SBMM is NOT used in most modern games anymore, but EOMM is used instead.

EOMM - An Engagement Optimized Matchmaking Framework
https://web.cs.ucla.edu/~yzsun/papers/WWW17Chen_EOMM

US20160005270A1 - System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160005270A1/en

US20190091581A1 - Methods and Systems for Improved Player Matching in Multiplayer Gaming Environments
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20190091581A1/en

US8425330B1 - Dynamic battle session matchmaking in a multiplayer game
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8425330

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334489308_Unfair_play_Video_games_as_exploitative_monetized_services_An_examination_of_game_patents_from_a_consumer_protection_perspective


- Larger inventories (especially if the free inventory is rather small)

- Battle Passes, as they often combine the above methods

- DLCs that may contain such items like listed above

- Having multiple editions. (Where buying a more expensive edition grants immediate unlocks and/or items that aren't strictly cosmetic)

- Having Early Access items that aren't strictly cosmetic/or out-of-game items such as: soundtracks, posters, etc.