Battlestate Games has opened up about the state of cheating and player bans in Escape from Tarkov in a new blog post. The post, published earlier today, details the number of players banned from Escape from Tarkov, the pioneering extraction shooter, between January and March 2026.
For the first time, the team has broken down why players were banned and offered more information about the punitive action taken against wrongdoers. It was revealed that only 54% of the 25,000 players banned from the game in Q1 2026 were actually cheating.
What’s Next for Escape from Tarkov’s Anti-Cheat?
In a recent blog post, the team at Battlestate Games revealed that 54% of 25,000 players banned from January to March 2026 were cheating, while the other 46% were doing something else.
That includes engaging in RMT from both a buying and selling perspective, and using automated levelling bots, account scripts, and ‘other prohibited software’.
The team at Battlestate Games also tried to clean up a few myths about Escape from Tarkov‘s ecosystem.
They confirmed:
- Ban waves are happening daily
- Since the game came out in November, the number of compromised accounts has risen, as has the number of bans
- False bans are still possible, but the proactiveness of the game’s detection system has been fine-tuned over the last year
- Battlestate Games is not actively chasing cheat developers because ‘the happy outcome of the legal case can take a lot of time and will not justify the efforts.’
Battlestate then confirmed what’s coming next, including TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot functionality, ensuring cheats cannot go undetected. They’re also considering adding VBS, IOMMU, or HVCI to ‘ensure competitive fairness.’ These are security elements that help Windows secure the kernel against exploitation, third-party devices, or unwanted manipulation.
The team is preparing to implement ‘new detection’ mechanics and a more proactive, automated system for uncovering cheaters. They wrote in today’s blog post:
Fighting cheaters is still cat&mouse game and with time becomes even more complex but we are still keeping up with our commitment to have new detection systems implemented soon as well as reducing the amount of raids cheaters can play before getting banned.
Furthermore, the level of compensation being offered for dying to a cheater is being examined. It was said:
We will steadily increase money compensation yet still ensuring people are not reporting every single person they meet and prevent the abuse of the in-game report system.
Battlestate wrapped the blog post by reassuring users that they’re fully focused on the improvement of the game, and naturally, that means the negative impact of cheaters and other malicious operators in Escape from Tarkov.
When was the last time you were killed by a cheater in Escape from Tarkov? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that nobody was working on State of Decay 3 when it was revealed
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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