Activision cites data claiming cheating in games is an $8.5bn industry; 69% of online multiplayer studios consider cheating "a significant or very significant problem"

GamesIndustry.biz says Activision's Team Ricochet is framing cheating as an industrial-scale problem, citing data that puts the broader cheat economy at $8.5 billion. Activision says Ricochet has disrupted more than 375 reseller operations, sent over 80 cease-and-desist demands, shut down 31 primary cheat vendors, and issued more than 70,000 hardware bans last month alone.

That lines up with Anybrain's own whitepaper, which points to cheating as a service becoming more sophisticated through generative AI, real-time problem-solving tools, hidden hardware, and identity spoofing. The practical takeaway for studios is that anti-cheat is no longer just a plug-in decision; it increasingly needs to be part of the wider security stack, with fast iteration and operational support behind it.

Anybrain also commissioned a survey of 250 developers in the US and UK who have shipped online competitive multiplayer games. Of those, 69% called cheating a significant or very significant problem, and more than half said it had already hurt retention or revenue. At the same time, 76% have implemented anti-cheat measures, usually more than one, which suggests teams are moving toward defense-in-depth rather than betting on a single vendor.

The survey also shows the tradeoffs are still real: 24% have no anti-cheat in place, often because they haven't found a solution they trust, worry about community backlash, or don't see cheating as a major issue. Meanwhile, 31% said they had removed anti-cheat after problems with performance, game design, or effectiveness, which is a useful reminder that...