Activision: Crackdown is beyond in‑game bans
In the same update, Activision mentioned several other efforts to dismantle cheat distribution networks that support hacking in Call of Duty. The publisher said that since the launch of Black Ops 6 last year, its enforcement teams have directly contributed to the closure of over 40 cheat developers and resellers.
“Major cheat providers are now labeling their tools ‘unusable’ or ‘detected,’” Activision said. “Resellers are acknowledging they have no reliable products to offer for Black Ops 7. We’re not only disabling their cheats, but also their illegal businesses.”
The game publisher propounded that most of the visible instances of cheating shared on social media had already been actioned before the clips began circulating.
“The accounts shown in many of these posts were banned almost immediately,” the team said.
Community says blog post is ‘gaslighting’
Much of the response to Activision’s post from the Call of Duty community was on the negative side, with some saying the figures do not reflect the real scale of cheating in the franchise. Some users accused Activision of “gaslighting” the player base with “cooked up” statistics.
“Again, a minute percentage… What they’re catching are the rage hacks and wall hacks. They’ll never catch the Cronus/XIM/Titan rats that are in the tens of thousands, especially among streamers who don’t cheat,” wrote one critic.
YouTuber WhoIsImmortal posted footage showing hackers using aimbots and shooting through walls just three hours into the beta’s release last Sunday. In one of the clips shared on X, the official Call of Duty Updates account claimed the player had already been banned, but the creator asked if it was only taken down due to social media influence.
While Activision battles its cheating epidemic, Black Ops 7 is falling behind in numbers compared to rival franchise Battlefield 6. Per SteamDB statistics, the latter game reached a peak of 521,079 concurrent players during its open beta, dwarfing Black Ops 7’s 99,574.
Treyarch welcomes community feedback
Treyarch, the studio behind Black Ops 7, said it is actively seeking community input during the beta. Speaking during a podcast at last weekend’s COD Next event in Las Vegas, Nevada, associate creative director Miles Leslie reiterated that player feedback was imperative to them in refining the final product.
“There are a lot of fans out there from our community who give us a lot of constructive feedback, and we really appreciate it. To be quite honest with you, we will be looking at everything,” Leslie said.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 early access beta continues through this week on select platforms, ahead of the game’s scheduled global release on November 14, 2025. The new Activision IP will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.