Warzone devs hit another 13k cheaters in latest battle royale ban wave

Brad Norton

Warzone developers Raven Software have pushed out yet another ban wave for the popular Call of Duty battle royale, booting thousands of problematic accounts in Season 2.

Cheating has long been one of the most controversial aspects of Warzone. With millions of players dropping in every week, there’s bound to be a few rotten eggs here and there. However, much of Warzone’s first year on the market was tainted by an overabundance of hackers.

Finally looking to put a stop to the issues at hand, Raven Software have been deploying ban waves more rapidly than ever before. In 2021 alone, we’ve seen five major updates that have blocked thousands of accounts.

The latest update just arrived on March 23 as another batch of players were barred from the title. “Over 13,000 accounts” were banned in the latest strike,” the developers confirmed.

This ban wave comes exactly one week after the last. While no specific figures were provided for the previous update, it’s safe to assume the total number of cheaters is dwindling.

With Warzone being a Free-To-Play title, however, cheaters around the world are simply able to make new accounts from scratch. Even if one account is knocked down, 30 more could be in rotation for hackers to continue their pesky ways.

Despite this, ban waves have served as a clear deterrent for some. With each new update, lobbies feel that little bit safer across the board. Until a more stringent anti-cheat system is in place, sizable ban waves are the best we can hope for.

Since Raven’s refreshed commitment to anti-cheat in Warzone, we’ve seen at least two updates per month. This is a stark contrast from the majority of 2020 that saw hackers running rampant for months on end.

Warzone gameplay
Hackers have run rampant in Warzone since release, though ban waves are looking to shrink the issue.

There’s no clear pattern to the ban waves just yet, though we can expect to see them fairly often moving forward. With the first major strike of the year, Raven took down 60,000 accounts in one fell swoop. 

Now, we’re seeing considerably smaller ban waves. On one hand, this could be seen as a victory if the number of hackers is indeed shrinking. On the other, there could still be thousands of hackers out there who’ve been able to avoid new bans. 

It’s always worth keeping vigilant when dropping into Verdansk or Rebirth Island. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as each new ban wave rolls around.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com