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Call of Duty bans nearly 20,000 cheaters following latest patch

Seems some people just don't get it, or are simply desperate to win, as Call of Duty has had yet another massive wave of bans on players using cheat software.

TJ Denzer

September 30, 2020 7:40 AM

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In an age where cheating players don’t really seem to learn their lesson these days, Activision and Infinity Ward are holding special classes. And by that we mean they’re banning people who cheat in droves. We seen the ban hammer drop before, but Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare 2019 just saw another massive wave of bans that resulted in an estimated 20,000 cheaters being ejected permanently from the game.

The mass ban of cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare apparently occurred around Monday at the launch of Season 6 with numbers hinted at by people familiar with the matter, and as reported by Vice. The wave of bans seems to be centered around a particular type of online cheating software known as EngineOwning, which has several Call of Duty games, as well as Battlefield, Titanfall, and Star Wars: Battlefront titles, although some claim that the ban is unwarranted and may have been caused by playing outside of region on a VPN service. Others, such as Twitch streamer Nick “Wagnificent” Wagner also apparently faced a ban and had little more than confusion and complaints about it.

Despite Wagner’s alleged lack of knowledge relating to his ban, sources familiar with the wave of bans apparently told Vice that Wagner’s account was among those in which EngineOwning was detected. Several other users on EngineOwning’s forums also reported being permabanned.

Activision and Infinity Ward have made it well-known that they’re not screwing around when it comes to cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare. Where Warzone has seen a serious problem with cheaters the pass, the developers have responded in kind with massive bans and other deterrent efforts, such as improving report functions and matching suspected cheaters up against each other.

Whether EngineOwning was at the core of the latest cheater ban or cheaters got banned for other reasons, it seems pretty clear that Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare will continue to crack down on the issue in massive quantities.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.