Call Of Duty bans over 2 million players for toxic behaviour in voice chat

Call of Duty continues to crack down on cheaters, announcing that over 2,000,000 have now been banned for toxic behaviour exhibited in voice chat.

You’re likely to stumble across cheaters in most multiplayer games. It’s a problem Activision is very much aware of, with the studio tweaking and perfecting its anti-cheat software Ricochet over a number of years. Just recently, it was announced that Ricochet can automatically boot players from a Call of Duty title should it detect them using any kind of cheat aim-assist tool, including those which facilitate ‘wallhacks’. Within the franchise’s community, many PC players have taken to purchasing PlayStation 5s, simply so they can turn off cross-play and avoid hacks and cheats.

While it may feel like a never ending problem, Activision has now announced a major milestone in the fight back against cheaters.

We had the opportunity to speak to several devs prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Take a look below.

Voice chat should be a place for two things: tactile communication and fun. More often than not though, it can turn rather sour with some players exhibiting offensive, rude, and hostile behaviour. For a while now, Activision has been using AI moderation to pick out those who use certain terms or phrases not welcome in the game.

As shared in a new community blog post, since being activated on 30 August 2023, the AI moderation software has detected and banned over 2,000,000 Modern Warfare III players (across both the beta period and full release) for toxic behaviour. The post read, “More than 2 million accounts have seen in-game enforcement for disruptive voice chat, based on the Call of Duty Code of Conduct.”

It added that only one in five cases of “disruptive behaviour” were user-reported, with the vast majority picked up by AI. It went on to encourage players to actively report those causing uncomfortable situations, adding that it was “unfortunate” that so many players were happy to passively let it play out.

As such, Call of Duty has now seen an 8% month-over-month reduction in repeat offenders since the rollout of AI chat moderation. Specifically in Modern Warfare III, there’s been almost a 50% reduction in the number of players exposed to “severe instances” of disruptive chat. It’s very much welcomed to see how seriously Activision is taking this problem. After all, we want to foster safe gaming communities.