Activision’s anti‑cheat team says the Black Ops 7 beta delivered an order‑of‑magnitude improvement in match integrity — and if the early numbers hold, players may finally see the kind of cheater‑free experience the franchise has struggled to provide in recent years.
Call of Duty has carried a persistent cheating problem for years: visible aimbots, wallhacks and blatant match‑spoiling exploits have driven complaints, bans, and widespread community frustration across multiple titles. That history pushed Activision to invest heavily in its RICOCHET Anti‑Cheat system, a multi‑layered approach that now combines a kernel‑level driver, signature and heuristic detection, and platform‑level attestation using TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot. The Black Ops 7 beta has been treated as the latest live test of that upgraded posture — and the company has published aggressive claims about how effective it has been so far.
At the same time, publisher and community reporting cover two parallel stories: (1) quick enforcement and strong early metrics from Team RICOCHET, and (2) real player footage and streamer clips showing cheating incidents on day one of the beta. Reconciling those perspectives — and understanding what the published statistics actually mean — is the central task for anyone evaluating whether Black Ops 7 will, in practice, be “cheater free.”
The publisher’s blog also announced plans for remote attestation at launch — meaning servers will verify the machine’s boot state with cryptographic evidence rather than relying solely on local client reports. Remote attestation is more stringent, harder to spoof, and represents a significant escalation in enforcement capability.
This is a familiar dynamic: concentrated highly‑visible incidents (a streamer’s game ruined by a hacker) make for sharp negative impressions even when the broader telemetry shows the majority of matches are intact. The real test will be longer‑term durability — whether cheat vendors can keep pace with RICOCHET’s updates and whether enforcement remains consistently fast as the game scales to millions of players.
That said, the headline percentages should be read with caution. Without raw figures and transparent methodology, percentages risk overstating confidence. The key questions that remain:
Source: Windows Central Black Ops 7 might be almost entirely cheater free it seems
Background / Overview
Call of Duty has carried a persistent cheating problem for years: visible aimbots, wallhacks and blatant match‑spoiling exploits have driven complaints, bans, and widespread community frustration across multiple titles. That history pushed Activision to invest heavily in its RICOCHET Anti‑Cheat system, a multi‑layered approach that now combines a kernel‑level driver, signature and heuristic detection, and platform‑level attestation using TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot. The Black Ops 7 beta has been treated as the latest live test of that upgraded posture — and the company has published aggressive claims about how effective it has been so far. At the same time, publisher and community reporting cover two parallel stories: (1) quick enforcement and strong early metrics from Team RICOCHET, and (2) real player footage and streamer clips showing cheating incidents on day one of the beta. Reconciling those perspectives — and understanding what the published statistics actually mean — is the central task for anyone evaluating whether Black Ops 7 will, in practice, be “cheater free.”
What Activision and Team RICOCHET are claiming
- On social channels and official posts, Team RICOCHET reported that on Day 1 of the Black Ops 7 beta, 97.5% of matches were completely free of cheaters; by Day 5 that figure rose to 98.8%. The team framed this as a steady improvement in detection and enforcement as the beta progressed.
- Separately, Activision has emphasized that 97% of detected cheaters were stopped within 30 minutes of their first sign‑in, and that fewer than 1% of confirmed cheating attempts actually reached a live match — and those that did were rapidly removed. Those numbers have been repeated across the gaming press.
- To support that performance, Activision required TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot for PC players in the beta and said the same prerequisites will be enforced at launch. The publisher also documented plans for remote attestation (server‑side verification of TPM/Secure Boot state) on launch day to harden validation further.
How the numbers should be read (and their limits)
What the percentages actually say
The way RICOCHET’s statements are phrased is important: they report the fraction of matches that were “completely clean” and the fraction of detected cheaters stopped within a time window. Those are useful operational metrics, but they don’t fully describe how many cheaters attempted to play, or how many successful but undetected cheats may exist.- A high percentage of “clean matches” can still be consistent with a non‑trivial number of cheaters if the sample of matches is large or if cheaters tend to bunch into certain lobbies.
- “97% of detected cheaters stopped within 30 minutes” measures enforcement speed for known detections — it does not, by itself, measure the detection coverage (how many cheaters go entirely undetected).
False negatives, false positives, and edge cases
No anti‑cheat is perfect. Kernel‑level detections and TPM‑based attestation raise the bar for cheat vendors, especially for kernel or boot‑time cheats. But adaptive cheat authors can and will innovate, finding new injection points or distribution methods.- False negatives (cheats that evade detection) are still possible, especially for bespoke or tightly controlled hack communities.
- False positives (legitimate players flagged) are a well‑known risk for aggressive heuristics, and kernel drivers can interact poorly with unusual system configurations (driver conflicts, virtualization, custom kernels).
The TPM 2.0 + Secure Boot angle: what changed and why it matters
What Activision requires
Activision made TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot a precondition for the Black Ops 7 beta (and for launch), and it documented steps and requirements on its support site. The rationale is straightforward: Secure Boot blocks unsigned early‑boot components and TPM-backed attestation provides a hardware root of trust that anti‑cheat systems can (remotely) validate. That combination hugely raises the cost and complexity for kernel‑level and pre‑OS cheat tools.The publisher’s blog also announced plans for remote attestation at launch — meaning servers will verify the machine’s boot state with cryptographic evidence rather than relying solely on local client reports. Remote attestation is more stringent, harder to spoof, and represents a significant escalation in enforcement capability.
The practical tradeoffs
The technical benefits are real: better signals for integrity checks, fewer kernel cheats, and faster identification of compromised clients. But the costs fall on legitimate players and platform diversity:- Many older PCs, some custom rigs, and certain multi‑boot or Linux/Proton setups will be blocked until users enable fTPM/PTT or convert MBR disks to GPT and enable UEFI Secure Boot.
- Converting a system from MBR to GPT or changing firmware settings can trigger BitLocker recovery prompts and other support headaches if not handled carefully.
- Handheld and Linux users (Steam Deck, custom kernels, or unsigned modules) face uncertain compatibility; publishers’ kernel‑level anti‑cheat measures are notoriously difficult to reconcile with Proton and Linux gaming.
Community reaction: day‑one cheating clips vs. the enforcement data
Public clips of cheating in the beta aired almost immediately — streamers and players posted visible instances on day one, prompting frustration and disbelief that the system could already be foolproof. Those incidents were widely covered (and shared) across social platforms. At the same time, Activision responded that many of those accounts had already been actioned by the time clips spread and pointed to the rapid enforcement figures in their RICOCHET posts.This is a familiar dynamic: concentrated highly‑visible incidents (a streamer’s game ruined by a hacker) make for sharp negative impressions even when the broader telemetry shows the majority of matches are intact. The real test will be longer‑term durability — whether cheat vendors can keep pace with RICOCHET’s updates and whether enforcement remains consistently fast as the game scales to millions of players.
Technical strengths of the current approach
- Platform‑anchored attestation (TPM + Secure Boot): raises barriers to kernel/boot‑time cheats that used to be the most pernicious and persistent vectors.
- Remote attestation at launch: server‑side verification of boot state is a stronger guarantee than trusting local client claims.
- Faster time‑to‑ban: Activision’s metrics claim most detected cheaters are removed within 30 minutes, limiting their impact on matches when detection works.
Key risks and weaknesses to watch
1) Measurement and transparency gaps
Public numbers are compelling but incomplete. The company has not published raw incident counts, sample sizes, or the statistical methodology behind “clean match” calculations. That makes independent verification difficult and fuels healthy community skepticism. Journalists and analysts have repeatedly urged more transparency — for instance, revealing how many unique cheat accounts were seen, how many matches were sampled, and which enforcement signals were triggered.2) Exclusion and access friction
Mandatory TPM/Secure Boot will exclude or complicate access for some legitimate players (older hardware, dual‑boot systems, Steam Deck/handheld PCs). Support volumes and BIOS/firmware guidance will need to be well‑staffed at launch, or players will face frustrating blocks that damage goodwill. The long‑term risk is a tradeoff between platform integrity and inclusivity.3) Cheater vendor adaptation
Cheat authors are an adaptive adversary. As enforcement tightens, cheat vendors can migrate to new techniques, obfuscation, or targeted low‑volume private products that evade signature‑based detection. Sustained success requires continuous investment, rapid telemetry analysis, and the ability to bring legal and market pressure to disrupt cheat vendors. Activision’s recent takedowns of many cheat resellers is encouraging, but history shows the cat‑and‑mouse cycle rarely ends quickly.4) System and driver stability
Kernel‑level anti‑cheat drivers historically cause system instability on fringe configurations. That creates a simultaneous technical and PR problem: players who experience crashes due to anti‑cheat drivers will be vocal, even if they are a small minority. Mitigating this requires rigorous testing across many hardware combinations and fast hotfixes for driver‑related regressions.What players and PC admins should do now (practical checklist)
- Check TPM and Secure Boot quickly:
- Run tpm.msc to confirm TPM state.
- Run msinfo32 and verify BIOS Mode = UEFI and Secure Boot State = On.
- If you’re using MBR, validate and convert to GPT with mbr2gpt.exe only after suspending BitLocker.
- Update firmware and drivers:
- Apply latest UEFI/BIOS updates from your motherboard or laptop vendor to resolve fTPM/PTT compatibility issues.
- Use vendor‑recommended GPU drivers for the beta/launch.
- Back up and prepare BitLocker recovery:
- Save your BitLocker recovery key to avoid data loss during firmware conversions or Secure Boot changes.
- If you run Linux, Steam Deck, or custom kernels:
- Expect potential incompatibility; plan to use a Windows drive or a dedicated Windows test machine if you want to play at launch.
- Report suspicious players with evidence:
- Community reports and clip submissions still help detection models improve; use in‑client reporting and official channels.
The release date confusion — verify before you plan
Some reports — including the Windows Central piece you shared — referenced a November 17 launch date for Black Ops 7. That conflicts with Activision’s official site and repeated industry reporting, which list November 14, 2025 as the launch day. Activision’s announcement posts and store pages, plus major outlets such as Gematsu and GamesRadar, consistently show November 14 as the published release date. Treat the November 17 date as a discrepancy in the Windows Central text rather than the official schedule. Always rely on publisher storefront pages and the callofduty.com launch notice for final release timing.Independent corroboration: who’s saying what
- Activision / Call of Duty blog: Official update on RICOCHET, TPM/Secure Boot requirement, and a roadmap to remote attestation at launch. This is the canonical technical posture and the source of the enforcement claims.
- PC Gamer / PCGamesN / other outlets: Independent reporting that repeats Activision’s enforcement metrics while offering appropriate caveats about what the metrics show and do not show. These outlets also note the visible day‑one cheating clips and the context that some systems were only partially enabled during beta testing.
- Community snippets and aggregated beta reporting (forums, Reddit, WindowsForum files): provide on‑the‑ground troubleshooting, user experiences with enabling TPM/Secure Boot, and community concerns about exclusion, privacy and telemetry. These community documents highlight common user problems and practical workarounds.
Verdict — cautious optimism, but the fight isn’t over
Activision’s early metrics for Black Ops 7’s beta represent real progress: platform‑level attestation, faster time‑to‑ban, and the promise of server‑side verification are all material advances in anti‑cheat posture. If RICOCHET’s performance scales and the remote attestation system performs reliably at launch, the player experience could be markedly better than recent cycles. Independent reporting from major outlets supports the headline claims while offering healthy caveats.That said, the headline percentages should be read with caution. Without raw figures and transparent methodology, percentages risk overstating confidence. The key questions that remain:
- Will detection coverage remain high as cheat vendors adapt?
- Can Activision manage the support and accessibility fallout from mandatory firmware checks?
- Will kernel‑level anti‑cheat stability be acceptable across diverse hardware?
- Will the company sustain the investment and legal/market pressure needed to disrupt cheat resellers long‑term?
What success looks like in the months after launch
- Stable, low complaint volume about blatant cheats in mainstream playlists.
- Clear public telemetry reports from Activision that include raw counts or methodological explanations (this builds trust).
- Diminishing market viability for mass‑market cheat resellers (fewer “undetected” products being sold openly).
- Accessible, well‑documented support flows for players blocked by TPM/Secure Boot requirements, and reasonable accommodations for edge cases where possible.
Final takeaways
- Team RICOCHET’s beta numbers (97.5% → 98.8% cheater‑free matches; 97% of detected cheaters stopped within 30 minutes) are powerful and encouraging signals of progress. Those claims are documented by Activision and widely reproduced by outlets across the web.
- The anti‑cheat strategy depends heavily on TPM 2.0 + Secure Boot + RICOCHET and will require many PC players to enable firmware features or update their systems. Activision has published support guidance and emphasized the requirement for beta and launch. That approach raises accessibility and support tradeoffs that the company must manage.
- Visible day‑one cheating clips show the social cost of any remaining gaps in detection. Rapid enforcement helps, but community trust will depend on longer‑term durability and transparency.
- There is a small but important factual discrepancy between some press pieces on launch timing; official Activision pages and major outlets list November 14, 2025 as the launch date, so rely on publisher channels for scheduling.
Source: Windows Central Black Ops 7 might be almost entirely cheater free it seems