Call of Duty: Warzone devs offer long-awaited update on anti-cheat, confirm 300,000 accounts banned since launch

After months of silence on the subject, Activision and its developers behind Call of Duty: Warzone offered an update today on the ongoing problem of hackers and cheaters in the game.

Activision announced that more than 60,000 accounts have been banned today, and 300,000 total since the gmae launched, marking the first detailed confirmation of a ban wave since Infinity Ward confirmed 70,000 bans back in April 2020.

Shortly after that initial update, the company began matching suspected cheaters in matches together. And then in July, the developer promised “more banwaves” were coming before radio silence began.

Since then, the reins of Warzone have been handed to Raven Software with Infinity Ward likely moving on to a new project. Activision says that Raven will handle communication about bans, promising “monthly updates at a minimum, and when possible, weekly updates.”

“We know cheaters are constantly looking for vulnerabilities, and we continue to dedicate resources 24/7 to identify and combat cheats, including aimbots, wallhacks, trainers, stat hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors and any third party software that is used to manipulate game data or memory,” Activision said.

Since Warzone was released in March 2020, Activision says it’s added weekly backend security updates, improved in-game reporting mechanisms, two-factor authentication resulting in the invalidation of over 180,000 accounts, and the elimination of numerous unauthorized third-party software providers.

Moving forward, Activision is promising enhancements to its “internal anti-cheat software,” additional detection technology, additional resources dedicated to monitoring and enforcement, regular updates, zero tolerance for cheat providers, and consistent and timely bans. This is the first time Activision has mentioned any sort of anti-cheat in Warzone before.

Since its launch, Warzone has been, to put it simply, completely overrun with cheaters. It’s routine for players to run into wallhackers, aimbotters, and more in the battle royale, often put on display loudly by content creators who have been outspoken about the subject for months.

Casual players, competitors, and streamers alike will likely believe the company’s strict outlook on cheaters when they can make it a day without getting locked-on to with an assault rifle from across the map. But for now, this new promise of constant updates on the situation is a positive change.

“The security and enforcement teams have additional measures coming—both preventative and enforcement—throughout this year to root out both cheaters and cheat providers,” Activision said.