The ban hammer has been swinging at full force for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, with thousands of players being banned from the massively popular Battle Royale shooter.
As the number of players banned from the game escalates, does this show a faulty system, or is the cheating problem in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds really that bad?
'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Bans Thousands Of Cheaters Daily
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds made history last month by breaking the Steam record for the most number of players at the same time. However, as the user base for the multiplayer shooter escalated, more cheaters also found their way into the game.
Developer Bluehole Studio has used BattlEye as its anti-cheating system for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The technology has apparently been very busy keeping cheaters off of the game, according to recently revealed information.
A pair of tweets from the official BattlEye account gave a glimpse of just how bad the cheating problem is in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The system is said to have banned more than 322,000 cheaters from the game, which is already twice as many as the figure that PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, said last month.
BattlEye added that it is banning thousands of cheaters daily, averaging between 6,000 and 13,000 gamers per day. In its tweet on Oct. 13, the BattlEye account revealed that it banned almost 20,000 cheaters over the past 24 hours, with most of the affected accounts coming from China.
The numbers may sound like the system is glitching, but it is apparently just doing its job very well, especially for gamers who might have never even met a cheating player in any of their PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds matches. The BattlEye account also said that it is also banning cheaters in H1Z1, adding that Battle Royale games are very hard to manage but it is doing its best to keep everything under control.
What's Next For 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'?
Bluehole Studio has repeatedly shown its seriousness in dealing with cheaters and players who are exploiting PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in other ways. In September, the developer released an update that ended the run of AFK farmers, who were joining matches but do nothing once the game starts. They were doing that to farm battle points, which can be used to purchase in-game items that can then be sold for real money in the Steam marketplace. While the transactions are legitimate, AFK farmers negatively affected the overall gaming experience.
Bluehole Studio is working to finally release the complete version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. However, it stumbled into a feud along the way with Fortnite developer Epic Games, as the sandbox survival game has a Battle Royale mode that is an almost exact copy of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
