New Call of Duty: Warzone ban wave just made hackers' lives a lot more difficult

Warzone season 4
(Image credit: Activision)

Another ban wave has hit Call of Duty Warzone, removing tens of thousands of cheaters from the game.

In a recent tweet, developer Raven Software confirmed that "over 100,000 Call of Duty accounts" were banned in action taken on Tuesday, August 24. The primary focus of the ban wave was "repeat offenders and cheat providers at the source." That should make it more difficult to those who've previously been banned multiple times to make new accounts, and mean that the players providing cheats to others have reduced access to the game, stifling supply somewhat.

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Raven says that there are "more updates to come," but it's already taken action on Warzone's anti-cheat in recent weeks. Discussing the launch of Call of Duty: Vanguard - which Raven is providing a new Warzone map for - at the upcoming game's reveal event, Sledgehammer Games studio head Aaron Halen told players that "an all-new anti-cheat system" is heading to Warzone alongside its Vanguard integration.

That's good news for players who found themselves plagued by hackers earlier this year, but Raven's previous anti-cheat efforts also seem to be working. A recent report suggested that the availability to hacked accounts was dropping, with those attempting to distribute them resorting to helping banned players unlock their accounts rather than providing new ones. The arms race is far from over, but with Activision cracking down on hackers with increasing force, Warzone could be in a much healthier state by the time Vanguard arrives. 

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Ali Jones
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.