‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ update: 60,000 accounts banned for cheating after series of criticisms from popular streamers

Thousands of “Call of Duty: Warzone” accounts have been banned from the game. The timing of its announcement makes it seem like a response to a series of public statements by popular streamers. They have criticized the supposed inaction on the part of the developers to address the rampant hacking and cheating issues during matches.

Activision says banned ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ now up to 300,000

In a blog post earlier this week, the video game publisher announced that 60,000 “Call of Duty: Warzone” accounts were added to the list of banned accounts. That brings up the total to more than 300,000 accounts worldwide that were permanently banned since the game launched last March.

Activision insisted on having zero tolerance for cheating in “Call of Duty: Warzone.” The company added they are going after both cheaters and cheat providers.

To prove it is doing something on the growing problem of widespread cheating in “Call of Duty: Warzone,” Activision said it is continuing to release “weekly backend security updates” along with improving the ways players can report suspected cheaters.

A few months after “Call of Duty: Warzone” was launched last year, a two-factor authentication feature was introduced to add another layer of security for user accounts. However, Activision said it also served another purpose and helped then “invalidate” more than 180,000 suspected of cheating.

Part of the crackdown against hackers and cheaters is going after unauthorized third-party software providers, Activision said. The “Call of Duty: Warzone” publisher also assured fans that it added manpower and resources for its software development, engineering, data science, legal, and monitoring teams to combat cheats in the game.

More ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ streamers voice disappointment over widespread cheating

Like in many shooter games, “Call of Duty: Warzone” streamers become popular and make a living mainly by being good at the game. But regardless of how talented they are, they can be easily defeated by anyone, let alone hordes of hackers, using cheat codes.

It was then not surprising when several streamers have voiced their growing concern over the rampant cheating problem in “Call of Duty: Warzone” over the last few days. While their sentiments were not directly addressed in the post, Activision’s announcement seemed like a response to these criticisms.

Aside from announcing massive permabans, Activision also laid out some ways it plans to continue its anti-cheating measures in the future. It includes improving the company’s “internal anti-cheat software” and “detection technology.” Activision also said it is aiming for “consistent and timely bans.”