Activision's Team RICOCHET Puts Annual Cheat Economy at 1.33 Trillion Yen
Activision is aiming enforcement at the revenue and distribution layer of the cheat market rather than only at user accounts, and the report lands ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on October 23.
Key Facts
- Activision's anti-cheat unit Team RICOCHET published a blog report on September 18 about the game cheating market and its enforcement measures.
- Intorqa research cited in the report estimates cheat tool subscriptions across 15 surveyed game titles generate about 3.5 billion dollars, or roughly 551.7 billion yen, annually.
- Including account trading, boosting and hardware ban evasion tools, the overall cheating economy is estimated at about 8.5 billion dollars, or roughly 1.34 trillion yen, per year.
- Team RICOCHET reported disrupting more than 375 resale operations, issuing more than 80 cease-and-desist orders and supporting the shutdown of 31 major cheat vendors.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for release on October 23 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with RICOCHET planned to be implemented.
Reporting from 2 sources: KAI-YOU, Automaton.
Activision's anti-cheat unit Team RICOCHET published a blog report on September 18 describing the structure of the game cheating market and the results of its enforcement. Citing research from the threat intelligence platform Intorqa, the team put annual revenue from cheat tool subscriptions across 15 surveyed game titles at about 3.5 billion dollars, or roughly 551.7 billion yen. When peripheral services such as account trading, boosting and hardware ban evasion tools are included, the total cheating economy is estimated at about 8.5 billion dollars, or roughly 1.34 trillion yen per year. Team RICOCHET said the market has a pyramid shape: a small number of developers at the top, major vendors distributing products below them, and a wide layer of resellers who sell the same tools under different names. Against that structure, the team reported disrupting more than 375 resale operations, issuing more than 80 cease-and-desist orders, and supporting the shutdown of 31 major cheat vendors.
Intorqa arrived at the 3.5 billion dollar figure by combining the number of banned accounts that game companies publish, player populations, cheat tool prices, and market data drawn from 15 surveyed titles. The dollar amount covers cheat tool subscriptions alone.
A separate estimate puts the peripheral services at a median of about 5 billion dollars a year, based on marketplace access numbers and general e-commerce purchase rates. The upper bound for the whole cheating economy is about 13.8 billion dollars, or roughly 2.16 trillion yen.
Cheat tools are sold on subscription. Monthly access averages about 40 dollars, and premium packages run past 100 dollars. Some players spend hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on cheat tools, evasion tools, and alternate accounts.
The team's blog post includes the line, "In the end, cheating is a losing investment." It warns that entering cheat communities often means handing over IP addresses, Discord accounts, hardware information, email addresses, and payment data, and that some vendors ask for photo ID. Some developers embed malware in their tools, the report states.
Modern Warfare 4 is scheduled for release on October 23 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store, Battle.net), Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.