As BlizzCon 2023 comes to a close, and Blizzard confirms three new World of Warcraft expansions, including The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, the developer also reveals that cheating and the use of exploits in WoW has sharply increased, with more than 200,000 accounts penalized or banned in the last month. The new Worldsoul Saga is the perfect reason to get back into World of Warcraft, especially if you felt a little let down by Dragonflight. World of Warcraft Classic Cataclysm is also on the way, offering an improved version of the often-debated expansion from 2010. Nevertheless, a large number of WoW cheating accounts have recently been identified, as Blizzard cracks down in its flagship MMORPG.
World of Warcraft is ready for a resurgence. As the stalwart MMORPG approaches its 20th anniversary, the arrival of Worldsoul and Cataclysm Classic mark the perfect reason to get excited about WoW again, and jump back in if you haven’t been playing for a while. With all this new material on the way, Blizzard continues to identify and penalize accounts that are using WoW cheats and exploits. In October, the number of these accounts exceeded 200,000, the highest amount in recent months.
Blizzard confirms that in October, it took action against 203,026 WoW player accounts. “All of these actions were for cheating or exploitation, which primarily result in permanent bans or six-month suspensions,” the developer says. “This number does not include other actions such as those taken on accounts with character name or in-game language violations. We continue to evolve our methods and act against these malicious accounts on a daily basis.”
It marks a sharp increase from September, when Blizzard actioned 136,014 WoW accounts. In August, that number was 145,566. July and June saw 116,921 and 127,014 accounts actioned respectively. Cheating in World of Warcraft is varied, but may involve players using bots to automatically farm in-game items that can, in some cases, be sold for real money. Bots may also be used in PvP modes, and scripted to perform attacks and spells.
The release date for Cataclysm Classic is expected sometime in 2024. In the meantime, we have all the details on Worldsoul and the three new WoW expansions, live from the BlizzCon 2023 showfloor.
You can also get the best WoW addons to seriously improve your game, or use the WoW Dragonflight tier list to get the most out of the latest expansion, before Worldsoul arrives.