Activision has published a breakdown of the numbers behind cheating in its games, claiming cheating is big business, generating about £6.3 billion – $8.5bn – every year in account sales, boosting, and spoofing services.

In a blog posted on the publisher’s website, the publisher’s cheat squad, Team Ricochet, said cheat subscriptions across 15 games alone generate around £2.6 billion ($3.5 billion).

Activision said it has “paired technical detection with sustained legal action to destabilise the cheat ecosystem at every level”, disrupting more than 375 reseller operations, issuing more than 80 cease-and-desist demands, and shutting down 31 primary cheat vendors.

The publisher also claims cheat sellers regularly hide the fact their products have been detected, instead blaming outages on excuses like illness, surgery or car accidents to keep customers on side before admitting their cheats are no longer working.

Activision says the crackdown is also driving up costs for cheaters themselves, with subscriptions costing upwards of £75 ($100), spoofing tools adding further recurring fees, and some players spending more than £750 ($1,000) a year in total.

“Ultimately, cheating is a losing investment,” the blog concluded. “Every time we identify and remove a bad actor, the money they spent cheating goes with them – all for a temporary ego boost. Ricochet Anti-Cheat keeps making cheating harder, riskier, and more expensive to sustain. Our layered systems add friction across the market, and that pressure changes behaviour.

“The ecosystem keeps changing. So do we.”

Last month, Activision posted footage of one of its legal representatives turning up at the Ohio home of a notorious Call of Duty cheat seller and handing over a cease-and-desist order.

Modern Warfare 4 is set for release on 23rd October on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2. Activision is trying to convince players to pre-order the military shooter via $5 in store credit.