It turns out that becoming the most popular game in the world after less than a year of being released in Early Access makes for quite a lot of interest from the less-savoury elements in the gaming world. Yes there are griefers and team killers all over the place, and a few stream snipers have been hit with the ban hammer too, but we're told that as many as 1.5 million people have been banned from the game for cheating. That's quite an astronomical number.
Update on the number of PUBG bans: 1,500,000.
— BattlEye (@TheBattlEye) December 28, 2017
Announced by Battlegrounds' security software, BattleEye on Twitter, the number hints at a staggering number of people who purchased and subsequently lost access to the game. 1.5 million is roughly half of the daily peak players of Battlegrounds, but it represents a huge portion of the wider player base too. In September some 10 million copies of Battlegrounds had been sold, but SteamStats suggest that there are 26 million players in total. That doesn't even begin to factor in the console players out there.
Even so, that's several percent points of the player base, which is a staggering statistics. What is it that so draws cheaters to Battlegrounds?
Part of it has to be the sheer popularity, especially among Chinese markets. However, it may also be down to the ridiculous prices some people are paying for aesthetic items. If you can make real money by playing the game well, why wouldn't you cheat?
We are currently banning at a rate of 6K-13K per day, nearly 20K within the last 24 hours alone. The vast majority is from China.
— BattlEye (@TheBattlEye) October 13, 2017
As PCGamesN points out, at least those who aren't getting banned are being matched with other cheaters, so they can wallhack each other to their hearts' content.
