On April 26, Counter-Strike 2 players started witnessing a new VAC ban wave with Valve targeting hundreds of cheaters. By May 8, tens of thousands of cheaters had apparently been banned.
In the span of almost two weeks, the ban wave has eliminated “at least 26,000 accounts,” according to CS2stats. The website shared detailed information about the bans with CS2 content creator Gabe Follower, who posted it on X. It turns out most were VAC bans, but there were a few game bans in the mix.
Either way, while it’s not as huge of a number as we might have hoped for, it’s still a substantial number of cheaters eliminated from the game. Since the ban wave started rolling out at the end of April, players are claiming they’re encountering fewer cheaters in their games.
“At 19k now only ran into in 1/2 cheaters max but didn’t verify,” one player said under Gabe Follower’s tweet. Having said that, some players are sill reporting hackers in their matches. We’re not surprised, since there are certainly more than 26,000 cheaters in CS2, especially with the game being free and flooded with hackers in the past few months.
All in all, it’s a step in the right direction. Before the ban wave started, both casual and pro players were complaining left and right about the state of CS2. They pointed out how Premier mode was completely unplayable due to the number of cheaters, who were essentially present in every lobby.
This forced thousands of players to flee to FACEIT, a third-party website with its own anti-cheat system. It’s currently a much better environment to enjoy CS2 in. Hopefully, Valve’s action will result in CS2’s Premier mode being free of cheaters in the coming months.
