Remember when cheat codes were simply a part of the gaming experience? The Konami Code, Doom’s god mode, and Game Genie are a part of video game history. But these days, cheaters are getting banned from World of Warcraft and Overwatch in droves, and cheat distributors are being shut down. But cheating remains out of control in many competitive online multiplayer games.
Surfshark analyzed data from Google and YouTube to determine which games have the most active cheaters. According to these findings, Fortnite leads the pack with 26,822,000 YouTube hits for cheating-related videos, which is three times higher than the next game down on the list. Overwatch, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Destiny 2 round out the top 5 online games in which people cheat. Other notable games included in the study are Valorant, Apex Legends, and PUBG, with a total of three different Call of Duty titles making the list.
If you’re wondering where these cheaters live, Surfshark was able to discover which countries have the most online cheaters. Sweden has the most cheating per capita, with 145 Google searches per million people. The other top countries include the United States, Georgia, Mongolia, and Australia. Keep in mind that these numbers do not reflect on professional players from any of these countries.
Surfshark also found that the two major ways players cheat are through aimbots and wallhacks, with the former having twice the number of queries than the latter. Aimbots allow the cheater to lock onto another player and hit them without having to aim manually. Wallhacking enables the cheater to see another player through walls and other objects in order to pinpoint their location.
Both cheats provide unfair advantages and are banned in competitive play, but there are other issues to consider. Many cheats act similarly to malware, which can open everyone in the game to a potential attack if malicious code is present. And a worst-case scenario could put the security and privacy of all players in danger.
