Anti-cheat study reveals cheat makers are earning tens of millions every year

A new study about anti-cheat software in video games revealed which are the most effective and shined a light on how lucrative the underground world of cheat development can be.

Cheating in online games has been one of the biggest issues facing the industry for quite some time now. with studios actively trying to stay one step ahead of hackers developing aimbots, wall hacks and other nefarious tools.

A 2024 report published by the University of Birmingham analyzed 80 websites selling game cheats and how effective certain anti-cheats are at detecting them.

According to the paper, cheat sellers are making a fortune, with the authors conservatively estimating that they’re earning a combined revenue between $12.8M and $73.2M annually.

Activision

Wallhacks, aimbots and other cheats have been a massive issue in Warzone.

“Our findings suggest that prices for cheats are closely correlated to the technical sturdiness of the anti-cheat software they have to overcome. This correlation exceeds any other factor including, perhaps surprisingly, the popularity of the game targeted by the cheat,” they explained.

The study also ranked titles with the best anti-cheats, revealing that Valorant and Fortnite were a step above the competition.

Games such as Overwatch, Battlefield 2042, Rainbow 6 Siege, and Apex Legends follow with Warzone live near the bottom of the list.

The report explains that, “despite being a kernel-level anti-cheat system, it was unable to detect any of our kernel-based experiments. Nonetheless, outside of detecting kernel-level cheating patterns, Ricochet detected most attack attempts. However, we found that it does not employ a strict ban policy and does not even institute hardware ID based bans.”

This study comes amid rising concerns from Black Ops 6 players about Ricochet being unable to tell who is cheating and falsely banning innocent players.

Although the anti-cheat war doesn’t show any signs of ending, some studios have used the law to their advantage. Earlier this year, Destiny 2 developer Bungie was awarded $4.4 million in damages after suing cheat developer AimJunkies.