The Ki-84 hei has been sitting at BR 7.7 (Air AB) for years now, and its current placement highlights a long-standing problem with late propeller aircraft trapped in jet matchmaking, which still remains unaddressed.
At 7.7 BR, the Ki-84 hei is consistently pulled into early jet lobbies (8.0–8.7) due to the BR matchmaking spread. This means the aircraft almost never fights other propeller aircraft, despite being a prop itself and belonging to Rank IV. Rank is irrelevant to matchmaking, but it strongly affects lineup coherence and this is where the issue becomes even more apparent.
Japan has no viable Rank IV / BR 7.3–7.7 prop lineup to support the Ki-84 hei. Most Japanese Rank IV props sit at 6.0–6.7 BR, making them completely uncompetitive when dragged into jet matches. As a result bringing a mixed lineup severely handicaps the entire crew slot and bringing only the Ki-84 hei leaves the person effectively alone in jet matches.
This makes the aircraft isolated both in matchmaking and progression, discouraging its use entirely.
The key issue appears to stat-based balancing. Because the Ki-84 hei is effectively unplayable in its current matchmaking, it is rarely used. Low usage combined with survivorship bias (only very experienced or dedicated players flying it) results in artificially inflated performance stats, which then justify keeping the aircraft at 7.7. This creates a feedback loop where the aircraft’s BR never changes because it is no longer played by the average player.
As a result, the Ki-84 hei is not balanced by BR — it is effectively removed from normal gameplay. A reassessment of its BR placement, or meaningful decompression at the late-prop / early-jet boundary, is long overdue.