Valve bans an astounding number of cheaters after 'CS:GO' goes free

The Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system was working overtime in December, banning a record number of players who were using cheats and hacks in various games on the Steam platform, but mostly affecting Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

More than 600,000 Steam accounts were banned by VAC in December according to CS:GO expert Nors3, who shared a graph of VAC bans over the years on Twitter. Nors3 explains that the vast majority of players were banned for cheating in CS:GO, which could stem from the fact that CS:GO went free-to-play on Dec. 6.

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One of the most popular and iconic first-person shooter games of all time, CS:GO has been around since 2012. Like almost all competitive online games, CS:GO attracts cheaters who alter the game's code to give themselves certain advantages. Some cheaters are able to see enemy players through walls, some have aim assists that laser onto enemies' heads, and some are able to move at higher speeds.

VAC automatically detects most cheats and bans players in waves. Most months there are only a couple waves of bans, but in December there were five waves.

The big increase in cheaters is possibly due to the fact that players were able to create throw-away Steam accounts and download CS:GO for free to try cheats risk-free. Previously, players who wanted to try cheating but didn't want to lose their account would have to buy the game. CS:GO has been just a few dollars for a while, but that can be enough of a deterrent to people who aren't adamant cheaters.

It can be extremely frustrating to play against players with unfair advantages, so it's pretty satisfying to see such a large number of cheaters get banned.

h/t PCGamesN