Cheating stopped being a hobby for a few bored players a long time ago. Anybrain, a company building AI-driven anti-cheat technology, published a new whitepaper based on a survey of 250 game studios in the United States and the United Kingdom – and the picture it paints is of an organized, fast-growing industry powered by artificial intelligence and cheap, accessible hardware.
One cheat seller, one game, an enormous payday
The scale is easiest to grasp through a single example cited in the report: back in 2021, one cheat vendor pulled in roughly 1.7 billion CZK (the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars) from selling cheats for a single game. And this isn’t limited to one or two blockbuster titles – according to Anybrain, cheating is a problem that touches the entire industry.
What the 250 studios said
- 51 % of surveyed studios confirmed they saw a drop in their player base or revenue because of cheaters.
- 69 % describe cheating as a significant business complication.
- 45 % admitted that cheaters are able to bypass their existing anti-cheat systems.
- 76 % currently use anti-cheat technology, and 88 % plan to increase their spending on protection over the next year.
Anybrain also points to a Playsafe ID report, which found that 55 % of players have reduced or completely stopped their in-game purchases because of cheating. That’s the part publishers care about most: cheaters don’t just ruin a match, they teach paying customers to close their wallets.
Cheating as a service
The whitepaper frames cheating as a professionalized, globally organized business worth somewhere around 200 billion CZK (several billion dollars). The rise of AI is a big part of why it keeps growing – cheat developers can now produce and iterate on new tools faster than ever, which forces studios to rethink how they defend their games in the first place. You can read the full whitepaper on Anybrain’s blog.
What it means for you
If you play competitive shooters or any online game with ranked ladders and paid cosmetics, this is the backdrop to every anti-cheat update, kernel-level driver and ban wave you’ve been complaining about. Studios are spending more, cheat sellers are moving faster, and the arms race is going to shape how intrusive anti-cheat software gets on your PC.
Where to go next
We’ve covered the competitive shooter space in detail – for example the next chapter of Modern Warfare 4 and Bungie’s plans around Marathon. For everything else from the industry, browse our gaming articles.
FAQ
Anybrain, a company developing AI-based anti-cheat technology. It surveyed 250 game studios in the United States and the United Kingdom for its new cheating whitepaper.
Anybrain estimates the global value at around 200 billion CZK, the equivalent of several billion dollars. One cheat seller alone reportedly earned roughly 1.7 billion CZK in 2021 from a single game.
Partially. 76 % of the surveyed studios use anti-cheat technology, but 45 % admitted that cheaters manage to bypass their systems.
According to the Playsafe ID report cited by Anybrain, 55 % of players have cut back on or completely stopped their purchases because of cheating. Half of the surveyed studios saw their player base or revenue decline.
Yes – 88 % of the surveyed studios plan to increase their spending on anti-cheat protection over the coming year.