Study: Brazilians are biggest eSports cheats
August 27, 2020
Brazilian eSports competitors are most likely to cheat by using cheat codes, bots and hacks to gain an unfair advantage over opponents while playing online.
The Cheating Countries study used search volume data to analyse the incidence of cheat codes, bots and hacks used in popular video game titles, and compares this to the number of downloads in each country, to reveal which locations have the highest density of cheaters.
The research also found that gamers are most likely to cheat while playing Minecraft, followed by League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox and Apex Legends.
Indonesian, US and French gamers favour using cheat codes when playing online, with US gamers named the most likely to use bots and hacks against others.
An analysis of which cheats are most popular in each country reveals that Swedish and Norwegian gamers favour bots to gain bonuses, while players in Spain and Russia are most likely to use cheat codes to alter game terrain.
Gamers in the US, Germany and the UK are most likely to use bots, while those in Mexico, Ireland and Bulgaria are among those least likely to do so.
Top ten countries with the highest density of cheaters
- Brazil
- Georgia
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Portugal
- Greece
- Bulgaria
- Algeria
- Romania
- Azerbaijan
The study also found that Iceland, Panama and Costa Rica claim the lowest density of cheaters, making eSports competitors from these locations more likely to be honest about their abilities when playing against others online.
The likelihood of gamers cheating has risen exponentially during lockdown, with search engine queries for video games bots rising by 104 pr cent between February and June. Searches for hacks and cheat codes have also risen by 40 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively.