Activision says video game cheating generates £6.3 billion yearly, claims legal action is disrupting the market

Activision has published a breakdown of the economics behind video game cheating, claiming the global cheating industry generates approximately £6.3 billion ($8.5 billion) per year through account sales, boosting services, and spoofing tools.

The publisher's anti-cheat division, Team Ricochet, said cheat subscriptions across just 15 games generate around £2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) annually. According to Activision, cheaters are paying substantial sums to use these services, with subscriptions costing upwards of £75 ($100), spoofing tools adding further recurring fees, and some players spending more than £750 ($1,000 a year in total.

Activision said it has "paired technical detection with sustained legal action to destabilise the cheat ecosystem at every level". The publisher claims to have disrupted more than 375 reseller operations, issued more than 80 cease-and-desist demands, and shut down 31 primary cheat vendors. Last month, Activision posted footage of a legal representative delivering a cease-and-desist order to a Call of Duty cheat seller at their Ohio home.

Activision also noted that cheat makers frequently hide the fact their products have been detected, instead blaming outages on excuses like illness, surgery or car accidents to retain customers before admitting their cheats no longer work. "Ultimately, cheating is a losing investment," Activision's blog concluded. "Every time we identify and remove a bad actor, the money they spent cheating goes with them."