In the world of online gaming, few things spark as much debate as cheating. For legitimate players, encountering an aimbot or ESP user is a frustrating experience. But beneath the surface lies a massive, professionally run global industry generating tens of millions of dollars annually.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham spent two years analyzing the online cheat marketplace, examining 80 cheat-selling websites across North America and Europe. Their findings reveal these sites likely generate between $12.8 million and $73.2 million annually, with an estimated 30,000 to 174,000 people purchasing cheats monthly.
From Backroom Hacks to Professional Storefronts
The modern cheat marketplace bears little resemblance to its early 2000s predecessors. Today’s cheat websites look like legitimate software retailers, complete with product tiers, subscription options, and responsive support staff.
“They look like really professionally done online shops,” notes Sam Collins, a PhD researcher involved in the study. Rather than one-time purchases, many providers now operate on a subscription basis, charging monthly or quarterly fees. This “Cheat-as-a-Service” model provides steady revenue while ensuring customers receive ongoing updates as game developers patch detection methods.
The Extraction Shooter Problem
No genre has been more impacted by the cheat economy than extraction shooters. These games, where players risk valuable gear in each raid and lose everything upon death, create intense demand for advantage tools.
Arc Raiders has faced particular struggles since its October 2025 launch. A wave of cheating drove high-profile streamers to the breaking point. Michael “shroud” Grzesiek declared: “What’s the point of playing? Embark has zero control over their game right now.” Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag described his experience as “hell” due to the “egregious amount of cheating.”
The exploits are extensive. Aimbots lock onto targets through walls. Wallhacks make opponents visible through terrain. Embark has responded aggressively, banning “tens of thousands of players” according to CEO Patrick Söderlund.
Escape from Tarkov, the genre pioneer, faces similar challenges. Players using ESP can see exactly where high-value loot spawns, vacuuming up items before legitimate players arrive.
Arena Breakout Infinite has entered this ecosystem with aggressive countermeasures. The developer implemented advanced anti-cheat including the DMA-Hunter system. In Season 2 alone, over 4,200 permanent bans were issued, and more than 96 billion Koen was reimbursed to victims. Despite these efforts, demand for reliable advantage tools remains strong, with players seeking platforms that offer consistent updates and undetected software. This is where specialized providers like eshub.xyz have established themselves, offering cheats for Arena Breakout Infinite and other popular titles.
Delta Force has already seen significant enforcement. Between January 8-14, 2026, the security team banned 22,695 players, with 2,555 receiving ten-year permanent bans.
What Customers Are Buying
The most popular products target competitive shooters where small advantages translate directly into victory. Aimbots that automate targeting, ESP tools that reveal enemy positions through walls, and radar hacks that provide complete battlefield awareness top the sales charts.
Modern aimbots include smoothing to mimic human movement and bone selection for targeting specific body parts. ESP tools display health, shields, and distance. Radar hacks can run on second monitors, providing perfect awareness without cluttering the main screen.
The Legal Gray Area
In most countries, selling cheats exists in a legal gray area. Unlike piracy, cheat distribution isn’t explicitly illegal in the United States and much of Europe. Only a handful of nations, including China and South Korea, have made cheat usage a crime.
This ambiguity allows cheat businesses to operate relatively openly, though they still face threats from game companies pursuing civil lawsuits. Companies like Bungie and Epic Games have successfully sued cheat providers, securing multi-million dollar judgments.
The Technological Arms Race
The cheat marketplace drives an ongoing technological arms race with game developers. Recent developments include a resurgence of “pixelbots,” now rebranded as AI-aimbots. These tools use computer vision and machine learning to read the screen directly, then automate aiming without interacting with game memory, making them harder to detect.
Both sides have also moved into the kernel, the deepest level of computer operating systems. Kernel-level anti-cheat provides robust protection but raises privacy concerns. Paradoxically, researchers have found that kernel-level anti-cheat may actually improve user security against other forms of malware.
Risks and Scams
Despite the industry’s professionalization, significant risks remain. The same channels that distribute cheats have attracted cybercriminals seeking to spread malware or install keyloggers. Thousands of government and university websites have been hacked to promote fake cheat offers that deliver malware instead of working software.
Researchers noted that established cheat-selling websites avoided obvious scams, likely because building long-term customer trust is essential for recurring revenue. However, free cheat downloads remain particularly risky.
The Human Element
Behind the statistics are real players making calculated decisions. Some are frustrated casuals tired of losing to obvious cheaters. Others are competitive players seeking any edge. Cheat developers understand these motivations, marketing their products as solutions to the very problems cheating creates.
Conclusion
The game cheat industry represents a fascinating intersection of technology, commerce, and competitive culture. Generating tens of millions in annual revenue and serving hundreds of thousands of customers, this underground market has become an undeniable force in modern gaming.
For developers, the challenge is existential. A game perceived as overrun with cheaters loses its player base and ultimately its revenue. This drives the relentless investment in anti-cheat technology visible across the extraction shooter genre.
Players seeking reliable advantage tools navigate this landscape carefully, turning to established platforms that prioritize undetected software and consistent updates. As the arms race intensifies, the line between legitimate skill and technological assistance grows increasingly blurred.