Activision explains the strange spike in Call of Duty cheaters that occurred last week

Activision has explained why Call of Duty fans noticed more cheaters recently than usual. The company said on the "Call of Duty Updates X" account that their anti-cheat software had a problem which has been resolved. After the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, season 5 and its simultaneous launch of Game Pass on July 24, players began posting about an increased cheating.

"RICOCHET Anti-Cheat fixed a problem with a detection over the weekend which resulted in an increase in cheater reports," said the company.

It's not a lot to go on but, in summary: Activision just caught a bunch cheaters. Reports from game developers on cheating methods are often deliberately vague or unclear to keep cheaters in the dark.

The recent release of Modern Warfare 3 on Windows Store and Game Pass has been the focus of much of the current discussion about cheating in Call of Duty. The Call of Duty Updates stated that Activision’s anti-cheat team can see what platform players are using "despite how they appear in game."

Activision has stressed the importance of in-game reporting to identify cheaters.

It said: "If you suspect that a player is cheating in your lobby, regardless of the platform, we recommend that you submit a report to further investigate."

As always, cheating is a hot topic in the competitive first-person shooter world. Activision won $14.5M in court against a cheater earlier this year. Yesterday, another cheater bowed to legal threats.

The only constant topic in Call of Duty is the discussion on skill-based matching, which was also revealed this week. A secret Activision experiment on 50% of Call of Duty users found that they probably like it more than people think.