Activision anti-cheat team goes on another victory lap after 'the strongest beta results in Call of Duty history', brags '99% of matches were cheater-free' and warns that every day they get 'faster'

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat; Black Ops 7 says it's nailing cheaters, and that's that.

Fresh off a humblebrag earlier in the beta, Activision-Blizzard's Team Ricochet has returned to provide some more stats on dirty rotten cheaters that, on the surface at least, make for some impressive reading. "We’ve crunched the numbers for Black Ops 7 Beta, and Ricochet Anti-Cheat achieved the strongest Beta results in Call of Duty history," says a message from Team Ricochet on X. "Each day, our cheat detections got faster and your matches got cleaner."

This does raise a few questions. Only one in 100 games featuring a cheater is an impressive stat, but such a claim also depends on Ricochet having 100% confidence that it's detecting all cheaters… which may not be the case.

Secondly, a median time to detection of three matches seems… a little high? Far be it from me to cast aspersions on a piece of anti-cheat software that is clearly catching an awful lot of scoundrels, but if it's taking three games (and obviously with a median value in some cases that means many more) then maybe there's yet room for improvement.

Ricochet addressed the secure boot and TPM 2.0 requirements earlier this month, claiming that in concert with the software's automated systems even "those who did manage to slip through didn’t last long. Most never made it into a match." Grumbles persist about allowing this software kernel-level access to our machines, which as PCG's hardware writer Jacob Ridley says "is like administrator [mode] on steroids." But sadly it's not going anywhere.

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 beta: A group of soldiers aiing their weapons while under fire outside an industrial area. — (Image credit: Activision)

The 99% number is incidentally a slight improvement on where Team Ricochet thought they were a few weeks ago. "97% of cheaters were stopped within 30 minutes of their first sign-in, [and] fewer than 1% of cheating attempts reached a match, and those who did were removed within minutes," they said on October 6.

It's also pleasing to see that Activision is prepared to use its muscle outside of the game. It's sent an army of lawyers after cheat-makers and won some hefty judgements against the biggest culprits, with some of the villains even choosing to give up without a fight. Activision says it has "directly contributed" to over 40 cheat developers and resellers going out of business (or possibly even further underground) since last year's Black Ops 6.

I'm not sure quite how to feel about the robust attitude Team Ricochet takes towards cheaters. These stats all sound impressive and, very generally speaking, players do seem to be having fewer matches ruined. But maybe next time it could back up the numbers with some insight as to how it reaches these estimates, because just sticking a big graphic on X saying "99% cheat-free" feels a little simplistic.

"Team Ricochet is always adapting, working to stay ahead and keep your matches fair," say our kernel-loving friends. "We'll keep the updates—and progress—coming as we head into Black Ops 7 launch on November 14."

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

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