As the Battlefield 6 beta is currently the most played shooter, it also attracts many cheaters. EA manages to ban a lot of cheaters, but can the publisher keep up in the long run?
Battlefield 6 is currently the most popular shooter and has even broken Call of Duty's record. And as is often the case with shooters, it took less than 24 hours for the open beta to be flooded with cheaters. And yet the Javelin anti-cheat system is already doing a great job.
According to EA, over 330,000 attempts to circumvent the anti-cheat system have already been thwarted. The publisher also reported that over 100,000 players have already been reported in-game. How many of these players actually cheated is unknown.
Understandable With A Player Count Like That
Battlefield 6 reached a peak of 520,000 concurrent players on August 9, one day before the end of the first beta phase. This means that the game has already made it to 18th place in terms of concurrent players on Steam and is the most played beta. This makes such high cheater numbers a lot more understandable.
However, the frustration of the players is also understandable. Having over 100,000 potential cheaters flooding the servers and ruining rounds is obviously no fun. But EA seems to be making an effort to continue improving the gaming experience and prevent cheaters.
Cheaters Beta Testing
With such powerful anti-cheat systems as Javelin and such high ban numbers, the question quickly arises: “Why do cheaters even bother trying?” The reason is relatively simple: the cheat market is a multi-million dollar business.
Computer scientists found that over 80 websites earn between $12.8 million and $73.2 million annually from the sale of cheats alone. It is therefore very conceivable that many cheaters are using the beta to develop good cheats that they can then sell to players when the full game is released.
And with alarmingly high numbers like 330,000, it's not unlikely that a few cheats will reliably make it past Javelin undetected.
CONFIRMED: Cheats are already working in Battlefield 6. This footage proves CHEATS are FULLY FUNCTIONAL on Day 1 of Early Access Beta. pic.twitter.com/q3MKOsb5Mn
— Kenoo Ovail (@ohkenoo) August 8, 2025
Are Cheaters Ahead Of Developers?
Where there is money to be made, there is often motivation for innovation and rapid growth. Cheat developers have proven this once again. Just hours after Battlefield 6 became playable, the first working cheats appeared.
The more a game is considered “infested with cheaters,” the more it loses reputation. That's why developers need to work even harder to combat cheaters. Javelin even requires you to start your PC in Secure Boot mode to make Battlefield 6 playable, but even that doesn't seem to nip cheaters in the bud.
Players therefore have a legitimate fear that the full version could be overrun by cheaters who use cheats that are sometimes more and sometimes less obvious, thus ruining the fun of the game.
Cheaters will probably always exist, especially in the shooter genre. Developers and publishers must always stay up to date and repeatedly put a damper on cheaters. We hope that EA can collect enough data during the beta to prevent a wave of cheaters at the game's full release.