Cheating in online games isn’t just a nuisance for players — it’s a multi-billion dollar industry that drains revenue and destabilizes game ecosystems. In 2019, cheating cost the gaming industry an estimated $29 billion, and with gaming’s continued expansion, those losses are likely even higher today.
The popularity of searches such as DBD Cheats shows how widespread the issue has become, with entire communities discussing shortcuts and unfair advantages. This blog post will explore the widespread impact of cheating on the gaming industry, focusing on commercial cheating operations. These organized groups exploit games on a large scale for profit, generating billions of dollars, and their high financial incentives mean they won’t stop easily. For game studios, this creates persistent challenges that threaten both revenue and player experiences.
Cheating harms in-app purchase revenue
In-app purchases (IAP) are crucial for many mobile games, generating billions annually. Cheating directly undermines this revenue stream, threatening studios’ financial stability.
A common cheating service is “boosting,” where players share account credentials with cheaters. Cheaters log in and rapidly advance the account’s progress using bots, scripts, or other tools. They amass in-game resources and achievements, allowing the player to progress quickly without effort. While seemingly an easy win for the player, this undermines game integrity and disrupts its economy.
Cheaters also use automation and other tools to flood the in-game economy with valuable items, which they then sell outside the game at lower prices. Players often turn to these external sources for a faster or more affordable way to acquire items, bypassing the in-app purchase system.
Cheaters inflate user acquisition costs
User Acquisition Fraud artificially inflates installs, clicks, or views on mobile games. A growing challenge within this is User Acquisition Manipulation, where bots or cheaters mimic real player behavior to distort campaign metrics, leading to significant financial consequences for game studios. With mobile game ad spend projected to reach $103 billion in 2024 and $131 billion in 2025, the stakes are higher than ever. Imagine how much studios lose when this spend is wasted on fake traffic instead of genuinely engaged players.
Fraudulent players — using bots or automated scripts — interact with in-game ads, download apps, or simulate actions like reaching specific game levels, causing studios to pay for fake traffic. For example, in cost-per-install (CPI) or cost-per-engagement (CPE) campaigns, studios pay for each new user or engagement, with higher fees for deeper actions like reaching a certain level or making an in-app purchase. Fraudsters exploit this by creating bot networks that mimic real user behavior, misleading studios into believing they are acquiring genuine players.
Reward apps and offerwalls, which give players real money or in-game rewards for engagement, are especially vulnerable to User Acquisition Manipulation. With direct financial incentives, commercial cheating operations aggressively exploit these systems. By deploying bots and scripts to generate fake engagements, they inflate campaign performance metrics. The high incentive to cheat in reward apps makes these manipulative activities persistent and challenging to eliminate.
Addressing these challenges is vital to protect game studios’ resources and ensure investments lead to real, meaningful engagement.
Cheating in online games is not a victimless crime
Cheating in online games affects everyone involved. Game studios suffer from lost revenue, wasted resources, and the inability to make informed decisions. Engaged players feel betrayed, and some may even stop playing the game altogether.