Escape From Tarkov has been banning thousands of cheaters

Cheating can be found fairly commonly in any multiplayer game, and we have seen countless attempts to combat it in recent months.

From the implementation of software like Vanguard to the use of AI, several methods are being tried and tested across the industry.

For Escape from Tarkov developer Battlestate Games, the method of choice is a more old-school approach, namely publicly calling people out.

However, as the last two weeks have seen over 11,000 players banned for cheating, it begs the question of whether this method is an effective deterrent and who all of these people cheating in Tarkov are.

Over 11,000 people have been banned from Tarkov in the last two weeks

Battlestate Games is known for its strict attitude towards cheating and it is not shy about calling out players who have been caught in Tarkov.

In February 2023, Escape from Tarkov’s official Twitter account announced that it would be resuming the practice of calling out cheaters, which it has been doing since.

However, this does not seem to have deterred people as much as you would expect, as evidenced by the fact that 11,000 players were banned for cheating in the last two weeks alone.

On Twitter, the Tarkov account wrote: “From December 27 to January 12 with the support of BattlEye anti-cheat more than 11000 cheaters have been banned in Escape from Tarkov.”

Accompanying the tweet the account shared a Google Sheets document listing the thousands of names of players who have been banned in the last two weeks.

“So that's why it takes so long to queue. You're banning the whole playerbase,” joked one Twitter user.

Battlestate Games uses Battleye anti-cheat, which is also used in titles like Rainbow Six: Siege and Destiny 2.

Players are questioning why so many people are cheating in Tarkov

It is no secret amongst players of Tarkov that cheating is extremely prevalent in the game with almost every game seeming to have at least one cheater lurking.

YouTuber and Streamer, Ohmwrecker said: “What I want to know is who are these 11,000 people that cheat in Tarkov?  Genuinely curious, it's so f*cking odd that some people justify hacking in multiplayer games.”

One of the reasons this seems to happen is that people who are banned for cheating are not permabanned, allowing them to repurchase the game and jump straight back in.

Twitter users have been calling for changes to be made to prevent cheating altogether.

One user wrote: “They are rampant more than ever this wipe. Banning them doesn't do anything. Fix the issues so they can't cheat. It's ruining your game!”

Another said: “Maybe addressing the underlying issue being ease of access and game software exploitation would be a better way to approach. Instead of top down resolution maybe consider bottom up.”

While it is clear Battlestate Games is prepared to call people out for cheating, it may be time to bring in some new tactics to help combat the amount of it within Escape from Tarkov.

At least it seems the team is taking action based on player reports as well as the anti-cheat software.