With more people at home, cheaters are running rampant in online games

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

If you’ve been spending more time playing online shooters like Call of Duty and Destiny 2, you’ve probably noticed an increase in the number of cheaters you are playing against. Sure, some of them might actually just be better than you, but it’s definitely a problem and with more people at home right now, the problem continues to ramp up.

While cheaters are present everywhere, PC games are the most susceptible to hacks. Where consoles have pretty closed ecosystems, a PC is obviously easier for installing the cheating software used in games. These include aimbots that will lock-on to other players, wallhacks that let players see through walls, and even self-imposed lag that makes shooting a player more difficult. For legit gamers, hackers can literally ruin a game, driving the player base to find other games to enjoy.

These gaming companies are aware of the issues and many of them are trying to take a stand against them, but it’s an uphill battle. Developers must go through various hoops to push updates to help with them, as well as making sure the updates don’t break something else in the game. Hackers, on the other hand, can simply download a new hack and try it out. If it works, great, if it doesn’t, well, just download another one.

Destiny 2 has seen a 50% uptick in cheaters since January of this year. Call of Duty: Warzone is also fighting against a huge influx of cheaters. Both of these games are free-to-play and while that is great for players, it is also terrible, as cheaters that get caught can typically just create a new account and get right back to ruining games for others. Activision is working on the problem, currently trying to match suspected cheaters with each other, but obviously that system will not catch everyone.

Some games are taking a tougher stance on cheating in an effort to keep their player base happy. Riot’s latest hotness, Valorant, requires an anti-cheat system to be installed on the PC before playing the game. And while this isn’t new, the developers got a little bit of heat for the system, as it is always on, even when you aren’t playing the game. You can turn it off, but if you want to play the game, you’ll have to restart your PC so it sees the software when the computer boots up.

These are but a few of the games that are currently experiencing an onslaught of hackers and cheaters. Regardless, something will need to be done to help preserve these games because, from personal experience in Destiny 2 and Trials of Osiris, it can destroy any excitement you may have had for the game.

What do you think? Have you noticed an upswing in cheaters in recent months? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Xbox 20/20 will bring monthly Xbox Series X reveals and news straight to gamers’ brains
• Crucible, Amazon’s first AAA video game, launches for free on May 20th
• Someone made a 4K port of Super Mario 64 and I must have it
• Borderlands 3’s new Mayhem 2.0 update is a great idea that sadly falls a bit flat

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.