Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's multiplay continues to be incredibly popular. But as with any online multiplayer game, cheaters will seek to disrupt the service in any way they're able. It's a constant battle between cheaters and game developers. In Modern Warfare's case, it can often feel like a losing battle. This past week, however, Activision struck back against Modern Warfare cheaters in a big way. On Monday, Activision reportedly banned as many as 20,000 different cheaters.

Reporting on the matter comes from Vice, which says that the ban wave was confirmed by people familiar with the matter. Supplementary evidence of the ban wave came in the form of a notice on a popular cheat website, which stated that the site's subscription cheat service had officially been "detected" by Activision. It's unclear exactly what the nature of the cheat was, such as if it was an aimbot or wall hack, but odds are Activision was banning accounts based on more than just a single cheat.

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Funnily enough, alongside the ban wave several notable Call of Duty players publicly acknowledged that they were banned via social media. Twitch streamer wagnificent, who has a relatively limited 40,000 followers, was banned live on stream. Clemson University defensive end Xavier Thomas also noted on Twitter that they'd been banned. Further, several people on Reddit claimed they were innocently banned, though one later admitted that they were using a VPN.

banned players shadows

False bans do happen on occasion. It's just the reality of the situation when sweeping, automated ban waves are done based on data that isn't always entirely reliable. That said, the vast majority of bans are historically correct and Activision and Call of Duty's developers are well versed in the practice by now. That said, those who believe they've been banned unfairly should be able to follow-up through customer service.

These types of ban waves are not uncommon for Call of Duty, or Modern Warfare in particular. Activision doesn't always publicly announce or discuss these ban waves, so some smaller waves can sneak under the radar. This wave seems to be larger and wider-reaching than most, however. Or perhaps it just targeted a cheat service that has been reliable for cheaters for some time.

That said, there are always more cheaters to target. It's too lucrative a service for the grey market to stop supporting and video games continue to have flawed anti-cheat support. The least that can be done is spreading awareness that, eventually, cheaters do get banned, whether it's in Modern Warfare or elsewhere.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Source: Vice, Reddit