Garena Free Fire is a battle royale for iOS and Android and is the biggest shooter in the world. Now more than a million cheaters have been banned there within 2 weeks. It is even broken down what exactly the hackers have done.
What is Free Fire? Garena Free Fire, also known as Free Fire Battlegrounds, is a battle royale from a company based in Singapore. The game was released on December 4, 2017, and has since become very popular.
At the beginning of 2020, the latest figures for the shooter were announced. At that time, Free Fire had 450 million registered players and revenues of over one billion dollars. In January 2021, it was the mobile game with the highest earnings worldwide (via SuperData).
What has happened with the shooter now? Via Facebook, the developers of Garena announced that they have banned 1,045,825 accounts in the last 14 days.
The number itself is quite noteworthy, but the developers also broke down which offenses the hackers and cheaters have committed.
Auto-aim and teleports are particularly popular
Why were the users banned?
- 62 % for auto-aim
- 12 % for teleport hacks
- 5 % for an antenna hack, which allows you to see enemies from a great distance
- 4 % for wall hacks
- 17 % for other reasons
- Additionally, 27,420 accounts were banned for allegedly intentionally teaming up with hackers in matches
Interestingly, only 50 % of the cheaters were reported by players. The other 50 % were apparently identified by the developers themselves.
Why do we hear so little about the shooter here? Garena Free Fire is a free shooter for smartphones. Its gameplay is similar to well-known games like Fortnite or PUBG:
- You fight in an arena against 49 other players
- The goal is to be the last survivor
- You jump out of a plane and land at a location on the map
- There, you search for weapons and other useful items to eliminate your opponents and survive longer.
There is even a German localization for the game. Nevertheless, it is relatively unknown here. This is primarily because shooters tend to be played on consoles or PCs here. CoD Mobile is a small exception.
Worldwide, Garena Free Fire plays a significant role and is especially popular in Brazil and India, two countries with large populations. Regarding viewer numbers in e-sports, it ranks second, just behind League of Legends.
Cheaters and hackers love free-to-play shooters
Not only does Garena Free Fire have a problem with cheaters. The issue has also come up almost constantly in recent months with the shooter Call of Duty: Warzone.
Just earlier in February, 60,000 cheaters were banned there. There was also another wave of bans at the start of Season 2. However, the developers still seem unable to fully get the problem under control. This may also be due to the fact that cheaters continually find ways to create new accounts. After all, both Garena Free Fire and Warzone are free.
The cheaters are often people who stay in the background. However, even among the pros and even on live camera, cheating has occurred. We have collected the most blatant cases here:
