Call Of Duty players are 66 times more likely to cheat than Battlefield 6 fans

Activision’s shooter is riddled with bad gamers looking for cheats according to a new study, and a certain sports game is surprisingly not far behind.

While older generations might associate cheats in video games with specific codes to spawn tanks in GTA, it’s a less trivial pursuit when it comes to online games.

These days, games like Call Of Duty, Rainbow Six Siege, and League Of Legends have anti-cheat systems in place to counter aimbots or wall hacks in order to maintain competitive integrity. Cheats and hacks have been a problem ever since online games began, but it now requires a greater amount of effort to pull off.

For any wannabe cheater, the likely first step is searching about their whereabouts online. Now, a new study has pointed the reticule back at the aspiring hackers, revealing which games have the most searches when it comes to cheats.

According to a study by Surfshark, Call Of Duty is the most fertile ground for cheat-based searches. Using global search volume data from the past 12 months, Activision’s shooter was found to have the most cheating interest, with 66 searches per 1,000 players.

You might chalk this down to Call Of Duty’s ubiquity, but the games behind it aren’t exactly in the same breath when it comes to popularity. In second place is Rocket League with 59 searches per 1,000 players, followed by Rainbow Six Siege with 53 per 1,000.

Unsurprisingly, the top 10 is mostly dominated by shooters (Rocket League and Dead By Daylight are the only outliers). However, the biggest surprise may be Fortnite’s relatively low position considering its popularity – although this might be a reflection of how it’s grown into a more varied social platform beyond just competitive shooting.

The absence of Battlefield in the top 10 is similarly surprising, as it’s down at 13th, with only 1 in 1,000 searching for cheats. But maybe those players are classier individuals who value true sportsmanship in comparison to cheating Call Of Duty filth. Or maybe not.

According to Surfshark, the data suggests the use of Kernel-level anti-cheat software in titles like Fortnite and Dead By Daylight is deterring players from searching for cheats, hence why they’re lower on the list.

Additionally, the high search for Call Of Duty cheats doubles as a cybersecurity risk according to Surfshark, as many hacks require users to disable antivirus software and grant high-level permissions. ‘The high search volume could act as a funnel for distributing malware, such as info-stealers and remote access trojans,’ the report reads.

Call Of Duty might be one of the biggest game franchises on the planet, but sales for the latest entry, Black Ops 7, fell below expectations. It’s unclear whether this year’s game can reverse course, especially as it has to go up against GTA 6 this autumn.

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