NHL26 matchmaking region restricted?

Oh I completely understand that the population here basically doesn't exist  When I moved here from Canada I pretty much thought I would only be able to play offline. But in 21,22,23, 24 I was playing games all day everyday, maybe worst case I would need to search for a game twice before finding a game and the ping would be 175 in every game but games were plentiful.    Now I'm lucky to play 3 games in legitimately 15+ hours of searching.  In 26 it is basically impossible to find games which was never the case before.  It seems like it's only possible to play people in Asia now whereas in previous games I was playing people from NA and Europe quite often.  I was Div 1 since HUT came out until I moved here and because of the ping was hardstuck in Div 3 because of the ping but I could play which was to me a significantly better situation.  

Any update you have is greatly appreciated.  Thanks for the response either way.

Hi there. Thanks for the feedback. This is an issue that we're still investigating. Something to consider is that you're in a region that has a lower population of players. For NHL games that is. So, there's going to be a smaller player pool. However, we've had some reports about bad pings that could be contributing to this. I'll post an update when I have one.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents here:

I'm a HUT diehard, it's all I play, I literally don't play any other video games.  I moved to South East Asia in 2019. I have played like 2000 hours plus of every game. I have never had issues like I have this year.  I work from home and have my Xbox on my 3rd monitor so I literally am just looking for games 14 hours an day non stop.  I average probably 2-3 games a day and it is all the same people since the game release.  My gamertag is Gerbox 360.  If you look at my recent games, it will all be the same people that also only play each other it seems based on their recent games.

The ping is much better in the games I do play and based on gamertags it seems they are also located in Asia (Turkey and Korea) being the most prominent, I also NEVER play against Xbox users only PS5 which also leads me to think they are Asian based like myself.  I set my MAX ping to ANY as always but CAN NOT FIND ANY GAMES. 

I'm not sure what can be done or if anything is being done but playing 180 ping games and losing is much more preferable than not playing at all.

I'm at the point where I'm going to stop playing the game and request a refund because this is unplayable.  I am willing to do literally any testing and I am available like 24 hours a day if you need any help from someone that is actually out here. 

Is there any update on what has happened here or why this is so different than previous games?   If the answer is "You're in SEA that's just how it is, that's acceptable but some communication would be incredibly appreciated.

Apologies, I'm in Asia-Pacific (Australia) as well! I didn't get notified of your response, and I didn't see the "show more" in the thread until now!

It's definitely restricted. I couldn't find match in WoC when there was no one online in EU, It never matched me to NA servers. There's either invisible ping limit or it's blocked.

What region are you located in?

I'm currently looking into this. thanks!

EA_Aljo​ any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :)

Correct, I am still not able to find any games in drop ins and only if I have friends who matchmake and are in EU or NA region, they can find games easily.

It's very frustrating. And also the high ping is pain, I am not sure what's happening, is the game geo tagging us to asia pacific and then from there connecting to EU or NA servers? I don't know, maybe a Dev can help on this. Can anyone please tag them in this thread?

The low population was already a thing in previous NHL versions. But still managed to get my games. 

But NHL 26 doesnt even connect me anymore to any game. I had two games on the first Saturday a week ago during early access. After that nothing anymore. And if I see that people in North America can connect easily to games, I feel that there is some region restrictions maybe

saying this: I finally had my 3rd game in 8 days :D