Still, it should be noted these are not used by the developers of the games and are for competitive purposes. Others like Valve’s VAC, Blizzard’s Warden, or 343 Industries’ Arbiter aren’t included because they don’t operate on the kernel level.įor the sake of completeness, we also included ESEA’s and FaceIT’s implementations. Some developers opt for proprietary software like Riot’s Vanguard, Activision’s Ricochet, Electronic Arts’ EA AntiCheat, or Blizzard’s Defense Matrix. The most popular third-party software are EasyAntiCheat, PunkBuster, BattlEye, nProtect GameGuard, Xigncode3, and EQU8.

Here is a comprehensive and continuously updated list of all games that use controversial kernel-level anti-cheat software and the developers and publishers behind them. Because this effectively gives the highest level of access possible, there are significant privacy concerns with players questioning if they are safe to use or if it’s possible to bypass them.

A kernel–level anti–cheat driver is software that runs at the core of a computer’s operating system and can detect if a player is using an unauthorized process to give them an unfair advantage in a video game by monitoring all applications running.

Faceit anti cheat kernel