By Evan Zimmer
A study published on February 24 revealed that Call of Duty is the franchise with the most cheaters. Specifically, the study showed that Call of Duty has the highest number of players who search for cheats online. Cheating has been around for as long as games have, and it's been a problem not only for Call of Duty but also in most multiplayer-focused online games.
It's a good thing, then, given the study, that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 received improvements to its cheat-detection system in early February. The RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system that the game utilizes was improved at the start of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's second content season. The changes sought to improve cheat detection by analyzing player data for any irregularities across PC and console.
Call of Duty Players Searched for Cheats More Than Players of Other Major Online Games
The study, conducted by cybersecurity company Surfshark, found that Call of Duty has the most players who search for cheats, with 66 searches per 1,000 players. With 59 searches per 1,000 players, Rocket League had the second-highest search volume for cheats, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege was ranked third with 53 searches per 1,000 players. Surfshark used 15 of the top multiplayer online games for its study, including Rocket League, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Marvel Rivals, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Arc Raiders, and Counter-Strike 2, among others. The cybersecurity company looked at keywords associated with cheating over February, which included terms like aimbot, wallhack, hack, and cheat.
| Franchise | Number of searches per 1,000 players |
|---|---|
| Call of Duty | 66 |
| Rocket League | 59 |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | 53 |
| Marvel Rivals | 45 |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | 39 |
| Apex Legends | 25 |
| Dead by Daylight | 20 |
| Fortnite | 20 |
| ARC Raiders | 10 |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 9 |
| Dota 2 | 1 |
| Valorant | 1 |
| Battlefield | 1 |
| Overwatch | 0.10 |
| League of Legends | 0.02 |
Interestingly, the franchises with the fewest number of players searching for cheats were Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games, including Overwatch, League of Legends, Valorant, and DOTA 2. According to Surfshark, MOBAs had the "highest level of community integrity among gaming genres," with an average search volume of 0.3 per 1,000 players for cheating keywords. Another interesting finding from the study is that games that use kernel-level anti-cheat programs (like those recently implemented for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Windows PC players) showed a lower search interest in cheating key terms among players.
Kernel-level anti-cheats are often a controversial topic among gamers. Kernel-level means that the anti-cheat is installed on the system as a driver with the highest levels of permissions allowed. The anti-cheat has full access to system memory and hardware, meaning it can see hidden processes and hacks that user-level anti-cheats would miss. Plenty of gamers view these kernel-level anti-cheat programs as needlessly invasive, like Valorant's always-on Vanguard anti-cheat system.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
