Deception in the gaming world has become a billion-dollar industry.
Cheaters not only disrupt your gaming experience but also contribute to a highly profitable market. Leading up to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Activision shared new data on the cheat industry. According to their findings, cheats and associated services generate an estimated $8.5 billion in revenue annually.
This analysis comes from Intorqa, a game security specialist, as referenced by Activision’s anti-cheat team, Ricochet. The study suggests that subscriptions for cheats in just 15 games bring in around $3.5 billion every year. When you factor in the sales of hacked accounts, boosting services, and tools to spoof identities, the industry reaches the billion-dollar mark.
Some cheaters spend over $1,000 yearly
Activision highlights the sophisticated organization behind the market, with cheat developers selling their software through subscriptions. Resellers, account sellers, and providers of additional tools have created a whole ecosystem around these cheats.
Participating in this illicit activity comes at a cost. Premium cheat subscriptions can exceed $100, with additional expenses for software that hides hardware IDs. Those using specialized DMA hardware may invest hundreds or even over $1,000 per year to cheat in online games.
As a response, Activision has gone beyond just banning individual cheaters from Call of Duty. Team Ricochet is actively targeting cheat providers. So far, they have taken action against over 375 resellers, issued more than 80 cease-and-desist letters, and contributed to shutting down 31 major cheat providers. By the end of 2025, Activision had reported almost 300 such interventions in a single year.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat doesn’t end when your match does.
Cheat makers operate globally. So do we. We’re confronting cheat sellers directly.
Last weekend during the Closed Beta, we went to Ohio to take down Elocarry.
That’s not an isolated incident… pic.twitter.com/IP69qlGgDD
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) August 28, 2026
Pressure on cheat providers is expected to rise
It’s intriguing to see how some providers explain prolonged outages to their clients. According to Activision, cheat developers sometimes attribute such downtime to illnesses, surgeries, or accidents rather than admitting that their software is temporarily ineffective.
Moreover, the technical complexity involved is predicted to grow. Ricochet employs server-side analysis, a PC kernel driver, and security features like Secure Boot and device verification. Activision has recently enhanced its systems to better detect unauthorized input devices and other cheating methods.
Cheating is unlikely to vanish due to the immense financial incentives involved. However, the $8.5 billion estimate provided is just that: an estimate. Intorqa acknowledges the challenge of accurately quantifying such a large black market and notes that the actual revenue could vary significantly.