The most recent Apex Legends ban wave has removed a crazy amount of cheaters from the game, but is it enough to save matchmaking?
Like most free-to-play multiplayer games, Apex Legends has a cheater problem. For the past few years, players have complained about rampant cheating and feel Respawn Entertainment isn’t doing enough to stop them. However, the game’s developer has recently revealed that the team is doing more than players have accused them of.
Here’s the stats behind the latest Apex Legends ban wave and if it was enough to solve the problem for good.
Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has released some seemingly impressive ban numbers from the latest wave. According to devs, more than 100,000 accounts are banned for cheating every single month.
In a blog post, Respawn said that more than 6 million accounts have been banned since launch. The number of accounts banned has increased month over month due to an improved process, more capabilities, and “new tools and technologies” that are coming out “faster than ever.” This includes expanding the anti-cheat.
Gamers are not impressed. Apex Legends players have argued that the issue is still ongoing and needs even more effort to put a real dent in it. In response to the news, players wrote that 100,000 a month is “nothing” for a free-to-play game that has a significant amount of cheaters. Others noted that banned cheaters will simply create a new account and do it all over again. Many gamers feel that banning isn’t really enough and more needs to be done to cut down on cheaters.
After this massive ban wave, Apex Legends players are left wondering how many players who cheat are still in ranked.
Fan research from Season 20 found that 30% of players who made it to masters and Apex Predator, the highest ranks, have been banned. This data also found that the bans were manual. Since half the banned accounts are above level 500, fans wonder how many matches these players have been cheating in, compromising all of competitive integrity of those games. It also begs the question of how many players have been carried by cheating teammates?
The exact amount of cheaters in Apex Legends isn’t publicly known but it’s sometimes estimated it’s about 25-35% of players. This sounds high but is the general amount of cheaters in most shooters.
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