Respawn has closed one of the more awkward holes in Ranked. For a while, some players – mostly on PlayStation 5 – could drop into Ranked matches as Rookie IV no matter what their actual rank was. The exploit has been fixed, and the team has now published exactly how many accounts it hit with bans.
What the exploit actually did
Entering a match as Rookie IV instead of your real tier brought a whole stack of unintended advantages:
- no Ranked entry cost at all
- kill bonuses calculated at Rookie tier
- Matchmaking Rating (MMR) recorded as 0
- RP earned in those matches still being added to the player’s real Ranked score
In other words: free games, inflated rewards and a matchmaking value that told the system nothing. Respawn says that directly damaged the integrity of Ranked progression, which is exactly the area where the studio has been making changes for a while – it recently also published the Ranked matchmaking test results.
The fix and the investigation
The Anti-Cheat team tracked down the root cause and shipped a fix that blocks any further abuse. On top of that, Respawn went through the accounts that profited from the exploit and took enforcement action against players who used it deliberately and egregiously.
Enforcement results
In total 905 accounts were banned, with the suspension length scaled to how much RP each account farmed illegitimately:
- 731 accounts banned for 120 days – up to 4,999 RP gained illegitimately
- 107 accounts banned for 240 days – 5,000 to 9,999 RP
- 67 accounts banned for 365 days – 10,000 RP and more
Bans by platform
- PC: 12
- PlayStation: 848
- Xbox: 44
- Nintendo Switch 2: 2
The platform split matches the origin of the problem – the overwhelming majority of bans landed on PlayStation. Total RP deducted: 15,112,554.
What if you ran into it by accident?
Respawn is aware that some players bumped into the issue without meaning to. According to the studio, the investigation was precise enough to separate unintended interactions from deliberate abuse, and those accounts were not actioned.
The team says it will keep watching Ranked for similar activity and patching vulnerabilities that could be used to compromise competitive integrity. Exploits that break matchmaking, skip Ranked entry requirements or hand out illegitimate progression will keep getting investigated and punished.
Where to read next
If you want the broader context around Apex and its anti-cheat work, we also covered the EA Javelin Anticheat numbers, the round of weapon exploit fixes and the ban handed to a player who crashed servers with a Ballistic exploit.
FAQ
It let some players enter Ranked matches as Rookie IV regardless of their real rank. That meant no Ranked entry cost, Rookie-tier kill bonuses and MMR logged as 0, while the RP earned still went onto their actual Ranked score.
A total of 905 accounts. 731 got 120 days, 107 got 240 days and 67 got 365 days, with the length based on how much RP was gained illegitimately.
PlayStation by a huge margin, with 848 bans. PC saw 12, Xbox 44 and Nintendo Switch 2 just 2.
15,112,554 RP in total was deducted from the affected accounts.
Respawn says its investigation was able to precisely distinguish unintended interactions from deliberate abuse, and those accounts were not actioned.