Activision bans thousands of Black Ops 6 ranked players, but some say it’s not enough

Activision has responded to concerns surrounding Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Ranked Playlist, and specifically efforts to try to thwart cheaters. The company claims to have banned thousands of players and is banning more people every hour, but some popular streamers have spoken out to express their ongoing concerns.

In a statementActivision said the AI-based systems of Call of Duty’s anti-cheat technology, Ricochet, “continue to ramp up with code optimizations” that aim to “accelerate checks” against bad actors. Since the ranked game launched last week, Activision has banned more than 19,000 people and Ricochet is running “hourly sweeps” to kick out more cheaters.

Activision has always said that the fight against cheaters is an ongoing battle, and a question that may never be completely resolved. Popular streamer Nadeshot responded to the statementclaiming it is “total propaganda” from his point of view.

“Ten names minimum in the first three pages that we legitimately broadcast live on our feeds. How could there be 19,000 banned accounts when the most blatant attackers are giving us the middle finger in the rankings? Are we crazy? Qu ‘Is this still happening?’

Another popular streamer, Westie, said Activision’s Ricochet updates are ineffective and “result in absolutely no change to the gaming experience.” He also said that cheating remains a problem in Warzone. “It’s like anti-cheat has been turned off,” he said.

Another issue raised by Call of Duty fans is that Ranked mode on console forces players to use crossplay, which puts them in matches with PC players. A mouse-keyboard setup is considered the most precise way to play an FPS like Call of Duty, and many have expressed concerns about a “level playing field” when people on console, using a controller, are forced to play against people using mouse and keyboard. Then there’s the issue of cheating, as it’s generally easier to install cheat software on PC than on console.

In other Call of Duty news, Activision recently Reduced the maximum number of players for Warzone’s new map, Area 99. Activision also announced that Black Ops 6 had the biggest launch in franchise history, thanks in part to Game Pass.