PlaySafe ID: Cheating in Games in 2025
People face cheaters often, don't like the experience, and stop paying or quitting the game entirely.
This report is based on a survey of 2,013 PC gamers aged 18+ in the UK and the US. The research was conducted by Atomik Research.
80% of players have encountered cheaters at least once in their lifetime. 52% come across them every month.
54% of players see cheating-related content on YouTube. 38% encounter cheaters in TikTok, 34% on gaming websites.
42% of surveyed players said they wanted to quit a game because of cheaters. Some respondents even stopped playing certain games entirely due to the high number of cheaters.
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Despite this negativity, 62% of players admit they sometimes feel tempted to use cheats. For 25%, this temptation happens often.
At the same time, 94% of players believe developers are effectively fighting cheaters, which makes sense, as it’s in the developers’ best interest.
The survey revealed that 17% of players completely stopped spending money in games where cheaters are present. 38% reduced their spending.
The most sensitive group to cheating issues is users who spend $11–50 per month. 33% of players in this category stopped all spending and quit the game.
The absence of cheaters is strong marketing. 83% of players said they’re more likely to play a game without cheaters.
79% of players want cheating bans to extend beyond a single game - so that cheaters can’t ruin the experience in another title after being banned from the current one.
