I don't understand how people find cheating fun. But, so many people love it that a new study from the universities of Birmingham and Warwick in England estimate 80 websites make anywhere from $12 million to $73 million per year selling cheats to losers who can't get good.
During Battlefield 6's open beta, the cheaters started flooding in right after the very first day it was live. The game's anti-cheat system has blocked over 330,000 players, but a report spotted by TechSpot notes that some paid cheats can bypass these protections.
The academic paper found "cheats selling for up to hundreds of dollars a month." The cheats the researchers found ranged from $10 to a whopping $240 per month. Why on Earth anyone would want to spend that much on cheats, I can't even begin to fathom.
The team examined European and North American cheat-selling sites, estimating that as many as 174,000 people buy cheats per month. For context, that means the Battlefield 6 beta cull only knocked out two months' worth, and that's without considering cheat sites from around the rest of the world.
The report also claims that "none of the current anti-cheat systems completely prevent cheating." You don't need an academic paper to tell you that – you can log into almost any competitive online multiplayer game and find a cheater at some point.
So, if you get killed by someone you think is using wallhacks or aimbot, just remember, they could be paying hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege. There's also a chance you just got bodied by the "most locked-in catgirl" VTuber on Twitch.
In the meantime, check out the best online games you can play right now and hope you don't run into any cheaters.
