Activision reveal how many Modern Warfare 2 cheaters have already been banned

Call of Duty publishers Activision have revealed how many Modern Warfare 2 cheaters have already been banned, detailing the figures in a RICOCHET anti-cheat update. 

Cheating in Call of Duty has been a substantial topic ever since Warzone dropped back in March 2020.

The battle royale has been a resounding success for Activision, spawning a sequel that is set to drop in mid-November. However, its success was, to some degree, marred by major issues with hackers and cheaters. 

The response from the publishers was to launch RICOCHET anti-cheat and, ahead of Modern Warfare 2’s release, they have detailed how many cheaters have already been banned from the 2022 title. 

Activision reveal number of Modern Warfare 2 cheater bans

In an October 13 RICOCHET update, the devs revealed their plans for the anti-cheat system moving forwards, doubling down on its capabilities to identify, isolate and ban those seeking to manipulate the game for their own gain. 

They also detailed how many accounts have already been banned from MW2, despite the game not even being released yet. 

Speaking about the recent multiplayer Beta, Activision confirmed that over 60,000 “illicit accounts” were banned ahead of it going live. During the Beta’s live period itself, over 20,000 bans were issued. 

They also stated that 72% of cheaters were banned prior to being able to actually cheat in-game, while those who did manage to cheat in-game were generally banned quickly: “For those that were able to play normally (assuming every match they played included the use of cheats), our systems were able to detect and remove them from our ecosystem – on average – within five matches played.” 

Given how problematic cheaters have been in CoD across the last few years, many were pleased to see rapid progress made against those trying to play unfairly. 

The developers finished their statement by promising “more protection such as better detection capabilities, additional access to develop and deploy new mitigation techniques, and expanded freedom to update our security more frequently than ever before.”

Fingers crossed their efforts continue to be felt in-game. Modern Warfare 2 drops on October 28, with Warzone 2.0 launching a couple of weeks later.