Call of Duty: Warzone Bans Over 60,000 Cheaters

Activision has begun banning Call of Duty Warzone cheaters in what's reportedly one of the biggest waves of bans ever for the game. This time, the company banned more than 60,000 cheaters in the latest drop of its banhammer, according to Vice, which learned of this wave of bans from three sources familiar with Activision. This is the third large wave of bans since the game's launch last year. Over 50,000 players were banned in the first wave last April and an additional 20,000 last September. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/15/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-and-warzone-season-one-battle-pass-trailer"] This ban comes just a day after popular Warzone streamer, Vikkstar123, announced that he would no longer play the game, as noted by Vice. He echoed sentiments found throughout the Warzone streaming community at the moment that the game is in the worst state it's ever been in due to hackers and cheaters. Sources close to Vice said this ban wave targeted cheaters using EngineOwning as all EngineOwning account holders using the software to cheat in the game have been "wiped out." On EngineOwning's site, the cheat developers say they are working to update the cheat, according to Vice. Meanwhile, the EngineOwning Discord channel is full of account owners upset that their accounts have been banned by Activision. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-operator-in-call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war&captions=true"] This ban wave came somewhat out of nowhere considering that Activision previously warned of incoming ban waves before actually dropping the hammer in past instances. Activision laid out at that time what software they consider worthy of a ban and it included "aimbots, wallhacks, trainers, stats hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors or any software used to deliberately modify game data or memory." For more Warzone, check out this trailer of the first season featuring content from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and then read about how the battle royale has helped the series earn $3 billion over the last 12 months. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.