Call of Duty bans 14,000 Cheaters in Warzone and MW2

Over 14,000 accounts were officially banned by Activision for cheating and hacking in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.

Call of Duty has been at war against cheaters for over a decade, and in 2021 Activision aimed to bring the fight directly to the hackers by releasing its purpose-built ‘RICOCHET’ anti-cheat system. The system has seen various iterations over the years, such as improving its cheat detection, wrongful players are unable to deal damage or see hallucinations and hardware bans for repeat offenders.

Not only has the anti-cheat initiative been used to target offending players, but Activision has also struck the root cause of the cheat makers themselves. Leading service EngineOwning was charged $3 million in damages to Activision in October 2022. Public large-scale cases such as these have proved to drastically reduce the threat by striking the cheaters at the core and setting an example for current and future hackers.

In the latest banishing wave, over 14,000 accounts have been banned due to the outcome of their investigations into hacking software developers. Many sources believe this to be related to accounts using popular cheating services of EngineOwning and InterWebz due to users not being able to log in.

Why have the bans been carried out now?

Activision has been gearing up for the upcoming Season 5 update for both the main Modern Warfare II game as well as Warzone 2 when it launches on August 2, 2023. Due to the uproar in the community still revolving around hackers in Call of Duty, it is key for the developers to ensure that the integrity of the game is preserved and ready for the influx of players upon release.

Season 5 will be dropping with a fresh new wave of content, which includes maps, weapons, game modes, and operators for both normal multiplayer and Warzone.

For the full rundown of everything coming in Season 5, check out the full roadmap by following the link.