Does Black Ops 6 have a cheating problem?

Everyone has seen a very suspicous killcam while playing Call of Duty and been left to wonder “is that guy amazing at the game, or cheating?”

Unfortunately for players, hacking is a big part of the online multiplayer ecosystem in 2024. Cheat developers are constantly trying to make new hacks that can get past anti-cheat systems so that they can sell them and make a quick buck, all while being in danger of being sued into oblivion by companies like Activision if they’re making hacks for games like Black Ops 6.

While BO6 is the latest in the CoD franchise, it’s not the first game and won’t be the last to be hit by hackers.

Are there hackers in Black Ops 6?

Yes, like basically every online game in 2024, BO6 has hackers. Cheats are being made faster than most anti-cheat programs can keep up with, so the war against hacking is a never-ending battle for game companies.

Activision has been very open and communicative about its RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system, how it works, and what it aims to do. The company put out a blog post about RICOCHET ahead of BO6’s launch, outlining its wishes for the future and detailing new anti-cheat measures for the new game, including tracking player behavior with AI behavioral models to ban cheaters more quickly.

Cheats like aimbots (like the videos in the Twitter/X post below) and wallhacks have already been spotted in BO6 within the first week of it launching, and there’s likely to be more once more cheats are created to circumvent anti-cheat measures.

“Today, cheaters can run and hide but a trail exists,” Activision said. “What if that trail disappears? That is what the team has been working on. Cheat developers can’t hide player behavior. How people play – the legit, the phony, the good, and the bad – gives us information and we use that to build ways to pick those bad folks out of a lineup.”

The company said that it already has a lot of data from cheaters, and there’s already more in the works. But regardless of how many cheaters slip through the cracks, Activision says it won’t let up any time soon, going so far as to sue cheat-makers into closure in the past.

“Cheating is a frustrating issue across the industry,” Activision said. “But our goal is to get bad actors out of our game as fast as possible. Our NorthStar is within one hour. We’ve had a lot of wins over the years – taking down several cheat developers completely, shutting out third-party hardware, flinging cheaters toward the ground at Mach-speed – but we know those wins don’t make you feel any better when you get beamed by a cheater from across the map.”

Unfortunately, the problem with hackers has gotten worse since Ranked Play went live in BO6, especially considering it forces console players into crossplay with those on PC, where hacking is easier and more prevalent. This has greatly exacerbated the situation, forcing Activision to address the situation as players across the community, like Nadeshot, have spoken out about the problem.

While cheaters will never disappear forever, Activision says that RICOCHET will continue to fight the good fight against cheaters, and promised to even create new measures of detection and prevention of cheating if their current anti-cheat doesn’t measure up to the cheats hackers are currently using.

“Anti-cheat is a constant effort, and we are always working to stop and thwart the efforts of cheaters,” Activision said. “It’s an effort we’re deeply committed to, through and through.”

How to report cheaters in BO6

The best thing that players can do on an individual effort is to report the person they think may be cheating (press the button that appears at the bottom of the screen during killcams; on controller it’s clicking the right stick) and flagging it for RICOCHET and Activision to take action on if they are indeed cheating.

For now, though, every player should be keenly aware that the player on a huge killstreak on the enemy team may be hacking, and be prepared to hopefully report them and find a new lobby while the issue is worked on behind the scenes.