Following the end of Steam's Summer Sale 2017 by just one day, Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) auto-detected 40,411 cheating accounts on the company's digital distribution platform and service, with all of the aforementioned accounts then receiving a ban. This marks a record for the highest amount of users banned on the platform, with the previous record having been 15,227 accounts receiving bans in one fell swoop back in October 2016.

Additionally, there were 4,972 Steam accounts to receive a ban on July 6, 2017 courtesy of in-game reports, which makes the total value of skins and other digital items lost as a result of bans tally up to $9,580. Without a doubt, this will make for a lot of upset users who thought they could game the system and slip through the cracks of Steam's moderation of accounts who have been exploiting various games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

After the July bans, Steam's VAC ban rate has since settled back into less exorbitant numbers, for on July 7 – the day after the big spike of banned users – 954 VAC bans were doled out, while another 735 were delivered yesterday, July 9. Considering the drop-off in the amount of accounts banned immediately after Steam's Summer Sale 2017, it's safe to presume that the majority of the most brazen cheaters have been dealt with by VAC, with there surely being a scant few who managed to fly beneath the radar.

For those unaware, once an account on Valve's digital distribution platform and service has been banned by VAC, the decision is permanent, and cannot be removed by Steam Support. However, as somewhat confusingly stated on the Steam Support page regarding the issue, "If a VAC ban is determined to have been issued incorrectly, it will automatically be removed. If you wish to discuss Valve Anti-Cheat with the community, you may do so." So, how one successfully manages to negotiate getting a permanently banned account off of the ban list remains to be seen.

All things considered, much like the huge Overwatch hacker ban by Blizzard several months ago, Valve's gigantic ban of over 40,000 Steam accounts will likely be applauded by the gaming community, as there are many who simply want to play games through the platform in order to challenge themselves and not be subjugated by those who decide to cheat. Of course, while this huge wave of bans will likely keep the platform relatively cheat-free for a while, there will always be those who try to swindle the system.

Steam's Summer Sale 2017 officially wrapped up last week.

Source: Steam Database, Vac-Ban