Study Finds That Roughly Six Out of Ten Matches in Escape From Tarkov Contain Cheaters

An inquiry concerning the extent of cheating in Escape From Tarkov suggests that in at least 60 percent of matches, one can find cheaters. Almost all players of Escape From Tarkov have had some sort of encounter with a cheater in-game, whether it was an obvious one that was flying or invulnerable or a more subtle one that only aroused suspicion. This prompted one Escape From Tarkov enthusiast to determine just how rampant cheating is.

Before delving into the findings of the study, it should be noted that Escape From Tarkov has numerous tactics for dealing with cheaters. Developer Battlestate Games asserts that it bans thousands of cheaters every day. Moreover, even if players run into cheaters in Escape From Tarkov, it does not mean the system isn’t monitoring them. Usually, punishment is not implemented right away when cheating is identified to disguise how they identify them.

g0at, a YouTuber, was determined to tackle the cheating issue in Escape from Tarkov and, despite not being a developer and having no access to any official tools, he found a way. He utilized cheat tools to find other cheaters by observing opponent locations through walls and employed a technique he dubbed “The Wiggle.” To deploy this strategy, he would approach suspected cheaters and wiggle his character. Much to his surprise, the cheaters often responded in kind by wiggling themselves.

g0at, who utilized the wiggle technique and general observation, conducted 125 Escape From Tarkov online raids and determined that “obvious” cheaters were present in approximately 60% of them. These cheaters were not easily detectable to the average player, however; there were no speed hackers, “stanky leg” invincible hackers, no flying hackers, and aimbots/rage-hacks were a rare occurrence. He concluded that the majority of the hackers he encountered had simpler hacks that enabled them to view players through walls and were only able to be identified through wiggling and observing with hacks activated.

According to g0at’s research, it is not only astonishing that 60% of over 125 matches had hackers, but also that his technique of discovering cheaters was far from perfect. It is possible that he overlooked hackers in all his games. 60%, as he confirmed, is just an estimate, and the real figure could be much greater.

Following the publication of g0at’s video, the developer of Escape From Tarkov, Battlestate Games, issued a statement. COO Nikita Buyanov mentioned that the studio is doing its best to tackle the issue of cheating in the game by banning cheats daily, collaborating with BattlEye Anti-Cheat to further its capabilities, creating internal anti-cheat systems, and taking other measures. Unfortunately, trust will be hard to restore after this video and the general dissatisfaction with cheating in the game.

Escape From Tarkov is now available for early access on the PC platform.