51% of Game Developers Report Player and Revenue Losses From Cheating

A recent industry report indicates that 51% of surveyed game developers face measurable declines in player retention or revenue due to cheating. The findings come from Anybrain and their report titled The Rise of Cheating as a Service. The research surveyed 250 developers working on competitive online multiplayer games across the United States and the United Kingdom.

The study highlights cheating as a growing commercial problem. Sixty-nine percent of surveyed studios view cheating as a significant or very significant problem. The report estimates that the global market for cheats is worth $8.5 billion, driven by professionalized ecosystems including cheat subscriptions, boosting services, and in-game economy manipulation.

While 76% of studios have implemented some form of anti-cheat, developers continue to face operational hurdles. Forty-five percent report that cheaters find ways around existing protections, and 58% receive regular community complaints about cheating. Furthermore, anti-cheat tools introduce their own complications. Fifty-five percent of studios cite technical issues caused by anti-cheat software, while 31% report false positives that lead to innocent players being banned. An additional 37% report community backlash stemming from anti-cheat efforts.

Client-side anti-cheat is currently used by 50% of respondents, followed by AI-powered anti-cheat at 48% and third-party anti-cheat at 42%. Among studios without anti-cheat, 24% currently operate unprotected. Reasons include failing to find a working solution, worries about community feedback, and believing they lack a cheating problem. Despite these obstacles, 93% of surveyed studios maintain dedicated anti-cheat teams, and 88% plan to increase their anti-cheat investment over the next 12 months.