Steam bans over 90,000 accounts in massive purge

Steam has banned over 90,000 accounts in a massive purge over the last few days. The large wave of Valve Anti-Cheat bans were reported via PCGamesN. According to SteamDB’s statistics, the total number of accounts that have been handed the punishment increases each day. The bans began on Wednesday, with a whopping 28,409 accounts banned over just one day. On Thursday, the number steadily continued to climb, with 61,486 additional bans completed. 

Steam has banned over 90,000 accounts in a massive purge over the last few days. The large wave of Valve Anti-Cheat bans were reported via PCGamesN. According to SteamDB’s statistics, the total number of accounts that have been handed the punishment increases each day. The bans began on Wednesday, with a whopping 28,409 accounts banned over just one day. On Thursday, the number steadily continued to climb, with 61,486 additional bans completed. 

There haven’t been any official statements on the nature of these mass ban waves, Valve has kept mum on the situation. It’s possible that VAC has been able to identify some sort of new exploit or cheating action that a massive amount of players have been using, and has been reacting in turn. The system typically automatically monitors players using exploits in major titles like Call of Duty, Dota 2, and other popular games. 

The act of mass banning accounts isn’t new for the platform. SteamDB indicates that over 100,000 users have been banned from the service every month in 2018 so far, but this week’s bans have been done at a much higher rate, sporadically, and record breaking.

It remains to be seen if the pace will continue over the next week, or if this is a one-off response to a particular issue. Perhaps Valve will comment on the problems in the coming days to shine some light on the situation. If you’re in the habit of being shady on Steam, it might be wise to lay low.