Activision’s dedicated anti‑cheat unit, Team Ricochet, which oversees the security of the Call of Duty franchise, recently highlighted research indicating that the illicit cheating market now generates roughly $8.5 billion each year. The figure comes from a broader analysis performed earlier this year by threat‑intelligence firm Intorqa, which estimated that developers of cheat software earn about $3.5 billion annually from a sample of fifteen popular titles.
When ancillary services such as account‑selling, spoofing tools, and hardware‑based cheat devices are added into the calculation, the total swells to the $8.5 billion estimate cited by Activision. In a detailed blog entry, Activision explained that Team Ricochet has taken decisive action against the underground ecosystem: more than 375 cheat‑selling operations have been disrupted, over 80 cease‑and‑desist notices have been dispatched, and 31 primary cheat vendors have been forced offline. The team also reported issuing in excess of 70,000 new hardware bans in the last month alone, underscoring the scale of the enforcement effort required to protect millions of players.
Anybrain, a provider of anti‑cheat technology, echoed Intorqa’s findings in its recent whitepaper titled “The Rise of Cheating‑as‑a‑Service.” In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Anybrain’s co‑founder and chief executive André Pimenta Ribeiro described the phenomenon as a fully fledged commercial operation, noting that “malicious actors have turned cheating in online video games into a successful business, commonly known as Cheating as a Service.” He added that over the past three decades cheating has morphed from simple hacks into a sophisticated, constantly evolving industry. Modern cheat solutions now frequently incorporate generative AI, real‑time problem‑solving algorithms, concealed hardware modules, and digital‑identity spoofing to evade detection mechanisms. Ribeiro warned that this rapid technological arms race gives bad actors a decisive edge: they can instantly modify their tools to bypass new anti‑cheat updates, thereby undermining the reliability of existing defenses, eroding player trust, and threatening revenue streams.
“No single tool can solve this anymore,” he said, “which is why the studios seeing the best results are the ones treating security as part of their tech stack, not a silver bullet.” To gauge industry sentiment, Anybrain commissioned a survey of 250 developers based in the United States and the United Kingdom who have launched online competitive multiplayer games. Conducted by Atomik Research, the poll revealed that 69 % of respondents label cheating as a “significant or very significant problem.” More than half of those studios reported measurable drops in player retention and direct revenue loss attributable to cheating activity. “If cheating becomes too excessive, it can significantly hurt player loyalty and the title’s lifetime value (LTV), causing players to abandon the game for one with a better reputation,” Ribeiro explained.
The survey also showed that 76 % of studios have already adopted anti‑cheat measures, with the majority employing multiple solutions simultaneously. This multi‑layered approach suggests that a comprehensive security tech‑stack is now the preferred strategy for combating cheating in modern games. Conversely, 24 % of developers have not yet implemented any anti‑cheat system.
The primary reason, cited by a quarter of this group, is the perception that “they have not found an anti‑cheat that works yet.” Additional concerns include potential backlash from the community and the belief that cheating is not a pressing issue, which accounted for 22 % of the non‑adopters. Among the respondents, 69 % disclosed that they had never previously integrated an anti‑cheat solution, while 31 % admitted they had tried one in the past but later removed it because of performance degradation, interference with game design, or insufficient effectiveness. Notably, 93 % of surveyed studios reported establishing a dedicated anti‑cheat team within their organization, mirroring Activision’s Team Ricochet model. Looking ahead, 88 % of developers said they intend to increase their anti‑cheat spending over the next twelve months.
Of those currently in the process of rolling out new solutions, 47 % indicated that a dedicated budget allocation made the implementation feasible. The data paints a clear picture: cheating has grown from a fringe activity into a multi‑billion‑dollar industry that threatens the financial health and reputation of online multiplayer games.
As cheat providers adopt advanced technologies such as AI‑driven bots and hardware‑level spoofing, game studios are forced to evolve from relying on single‑purpose tools to embracing a holistic, layered security architecture. The trend toward larger, specialized anti‑cheat teams and increased budgetary commitment suggests that the industry is recognizing cheating not merely as a technical nuisance, but as a strategic business risk that must be managed proactively to preserve player trust and long‑term profitability.