Online multiplayer games have to be constantly updated and tweaked to keep the experience balanced for players. While weapon and damage stats can be easily addressed, dealing with cheaters can become extremely painful both for the developers and players. Many popular online games like Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, and others have implemented anti-cheat programs to combat cheaters. However, PUBG Mobile seems to have taken cheaters quite seriously as it has banned over 2.2 million accounts within a week.
From August 20th to August 27th, 2,273,152 accounts and 1,424,854 devices have been permanently suspended from accessing our game, out of which these are the reasons:
— PUBG MOBILE (@PUBGMOBILE) August 29, 2020
⬜ 12%: Speed Cheats
⬜ 22%: Other
⬜ 27%: Auto-Aim Cheats
⬜ 32%: X-Ray Vision pic.twitter.com/0U7JFeSxtF
Popular BR games like PUBG and Fortnite have massive player counts and cheating can become rampant, even at higher levels. According to a tweet made by PUBG Mobile, the reason for the largescale bans between August 20 and August 27 included auto-aim ahcks, x-ray vision hacks, speed hacks, and "modification of character model[s]."
If banning 2.2 million accounts wasn't enough, PUBG Mobile has also stated that it has permanently suspended about 1.5 million individual devices from accessing the game. PUBG Mobile's developers have previously expressed their serious concerns regarding cheating in the game and implementing anti-cheat methods.
PUBG Mobile has now introduced two-factor authorization, adjustments to prevent hack vulnerabilities in vehicles, weapons, characters, and even introducing an anti-cheat software support.
To those who may have not played the game, PUBG on mobile may seem like the same game ported to different platforms. However, that's not the case. PUBG Mobile has distinctly differentiated itself from the PC and console versions of the game. PUBG Mobile has an exclusive map called Livik that was added to the game in last month's update.
Despite its tremendous popularity, the game has been scrutinized and criticized not just for the prevelance of hackers, but also because of its privacy policy. The game was almost banned in India due to its privacy policy, which raised questions regarding national security. Now, however, the game has made necessary policy changes which prevented the unfortunate ban.
PUBG Mobile is available on Android and iOS
