Gaming
Playing Dirty: Research Reveals The Nationalities That Cheat The Most At Video Games
- UK gamers ranked 16th – more likely to cheat than their Aussie counterparts, but less likely to do so than players in the US
- Russia, Italy and Israel are the top three countries that cheat at gaming the most
- The US placed as the 11th worst cheaters, with Texas, California and Nevada residents revealed as the three most likely states to use a cheat code
- Gamers in Iceland are the most likely to cheat at the Assassin’s Creed series, Turkey takes the crown for GTA, while UK gamers are the biggest culprits for Animal Crossing cheats
Many people use video game cheat codes to boost their chances of winning, but which nation is home to the world’s biggest cheaters? Uswitch did the research to find out, and it’s revealed Russia, Italy, Israel, Japan and Sweden are the top five countries where gamers cheat the most.
The World’s Biggest Gaming Cheaters
By analysing Google search volume data, Uswitch calculated how many people were actively seeking ‘cheat codes’, ‘cheats’ and cheat codes for specific games, in every country around the world, along with every state in the US.
The search volumes were then adjusted to account for each country’s population to create an index score, to make sure the data compared like for like. The results expose the top 20 countries most likely to cheat while playing video games.
The top 20 countries that cheat the most at video games (and the cheating index score):
Position | Country | Index ranking score |
1 | Russia | 18.40 |
2 | Italy | 16.58 |
3 | Israel | 4.87 |
4 | Japan | 4.48 |
5 | Sweden | 4.03 |
6 | Romania | 3.13 |
7 | Portugal | 2.36 |
8 | Turkey | 2.34 |
9 | Brazil | 2.32 |
10 | Denmark | 2.28 |
11 | United States | 2.10 |
12 | Ireland | 2.00 |
13 | Argentina | 1.92 |
14 | Poland | 1.77 |
15 | Croatia | 1.52 |
16 | United Kingdom | 1.43 |
17 | New Zealand | 1.41 |
18 | Canada | 1.35 |
19 | Australia | 1.28 |
20 | Bulgaria | 1.13 |
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Half the countries in the top 20 are in Europe – Italy, Sweden, Romania, Portugal and Denmark all make the top 10, and gamers in the United Kingdom ranked as the 16th most notorious cheaters.
The US falls just outside of the top 10, in 11th position. Close behind in 12th is Ireland, Canada comes in in 18th and Bulgaria rounds off the list in 20th position.
From Minecraft to Mario Kart – Which countries cheat the most at different games?
The study also looked into more than 50 of the world’s most popular video games to discover which country cheated the most at each game. Interestingly, Iceland features a massive 18 times – being found to cheat the most for a wide array of games, from the stealthy Assassin’s Creed series to beloved titles like Super Mario.
Malta clocks up eight appearances for games including the classic Resident Evil and Tomb Raider franchises, along with Borderlands and Crash Bandicoot. Turkey, Germany and Ireland all have three mentions and the UK appears twice, coming in as the biggest cheaters at Animal Crossing and LEGO Marvel Superheroes.
The no.1 country that cheats the most at different video games (and their cheating index score):
Game | Country | Index ranking score |
Animal Crossing | United Kingdom | 0.35 |
Ark | Turkey | 0.37 |
Assassin’s Creed | Iceland | 0.15 |
Battlefield | Iceland | 0.09 |
Bioshock | Iceland | 0.15 |
Borderlands | Malta | 0.05 |
Call of Duty | Belize | 0.28 |
Crash Bandicoot | Malta | 0.27 |
Crysis | Iceland | 0.21 |
Death Stranding | Slovenia | 0.03 |
Doom | Iceland | 0.50 |
Fable | New Zealand | 0.04 |
Fallout 4 | Germany | 0.66 |
Far Cry | Malta | 0.18 |
Final Fantasy | Indonesia | 0.31 |
Fortnite | Germany | 0.46 |
Forza | New Zealand | 0.03 |
Ghost of Tsushima | Italy | 0.03 |
Gran Turismo | Indonesia | 4.77 |
Grand Theft Auto | Turkey | 2.74 |
LEGO Marvel Superheroes | United Kingdom | 0.44 |
LEGO Star Wars | Iceland | 0.26 |
Little Big Planet | Ireland | 0.01 |
Mafia | Czech Republic (Czechia) | 0.29 |
Mario Kart | Barbados | 0.10 |
Metal Gear Solid | Iceland | 0.12 |
Minecraft | Turkey | 5.40 |
Mortal Kombat | Indonesia | 0.28 |
NBA 2K | Iceland | 0.29 |
Need for Speed | Iceland | 0.18 |
No Man’s Sky | Iceland | 0.15 |
Pokémon | Barbados | 0.70 |
RDR2 | Ireland | 1.19 |
Red Dead Redemption | Iceland | 0.50 |
Resident Evil | Malta | 0.07 |
Rocket League | Iceland | 0.29 |
The Sims | Netherlands | 2.12 |
Skate 3 | New Zealand | 0.43 |
Skyrim | Germany | 1.15 |
Sonic The Hedgehog | Ireland | 0.03 |
Spider-Man | Iceland | 0.12 |
Spyro | Malta | 0.29 |
Starcraft | Iceland | 0.44 |
Super Mario | Iceland | 0.26 |
Tekken | Malta | 0.04 |
The Last of Us | Iceland | 0.18 |
The Witcher | Malta | 0.07 |
Tomb Raider | Malta | 0.09 |
Tony Hawks | New Zealand | 0.02 |
Uncharted | Iceland | 0.12 |
Warcraft | Iceland | 0.26 |
Which US states cheat the most at video games?
According to the study, gamers in Texas are more likely to cheat than any other US state, and California, Nevada, Georgia and New Mexico make up the rest of the top five.
When looking at the specific index scores of each US state – although none are as high as Russia’s or Italy’s in the worldwide list – Texas’ score of 2.6 is roughly around the same level as Portugal, which made it to 7th place in the global analysis.
The top 10 US states that cheat the most at video games (and the cheating index score):
Position | US State | Index ranking score |
1 | Texas | 2.60 |
2 | California | 2.25 |
3 | Nevada | 2.19 |
4 | Georgia | 2.12 |
5 | New Mexico | 2.06 |
6 | Hawaii | 2.03 |
7 | North Carolina | 2.02 |
8 | New York | 1.90 |
9 | Maryland | 1.88 |
10 | Tennessee | 1.81 |
To see the full research, including the top 50 countries that cheat at video games the most, visit: https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/worlds-biggest-gaming-cheaters/
Gaming
Midjiwan opens Stockholm’s first co-working space for game developers
Midjiwan, the award-winning independent studio behind The Battle of Polytopia, today announces the opening of Game Town, Stockholm’s first coworking space for game developers.
In addition to being a new home for Midjiwan, Game Town will also serve as a base for Toppluva AB, the makers of Grand Mountain Adventure; Warm Kitten AB, the developers behind Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack; Gro Play AB, a studio creating educational games; and Dataspelsbranschen, Sweden’s trade association for video game companies. More game development companies are expected to join over the next few months.
The Swedish games industry, including subsidiaries abroad, generated SEK 86.5 billion (USD $7.9 billion) in 2022, according to a Dataspelsbranschen report. Gaming is a strong growth industry, accounting for over 4 percent of Sweden’s total service exports. Game Town will become a creative, innovative, and social meeting place, further solidifying Stockholm as a key games industry hub with industry meetups, mixers, and game showcases hosted for indie and AAA developers.
Södermalm, the Stockholm island where Game Town is located, has one of the highest concentrations of game developers. The nearby areas constitute a cluster for companies within game development, housing among others Paradox, DICE, Fatshark, and Epic Games.
Christian Lövstedt, General Manager at Midjiwan, commented:
“Game Town will become a professional and playful environment for smaller game studios that want to work and develop among other developers. We’re looking to create a community of people who share our same passion for gaming and game development. Game Town will bring together indie developers and freelancers to create an open and welcoming place for the entire industry to gather.”
Per Strömbäck, Chairman of Dataspelsbranschen.
“Within a kilometer radius of Södermalm, there are at least 3,000 game developers, making it perhaps the most densely populated place for game developers in the world. Here, games are created for billions of players worldwide. Perhaps there is something in the Earth’s magnetic field that makes local games particularly good? Game Town will be located right in the middle of this hub, so it is only right that our own office should be right here.”
Gaming
Metaverse Studio Karta Reaches Huge Milestone with New Game Beat Builder
Karta pushes the boundaries of music game innovation with Built Builder on Fortnite – reaching 100k players
- Beat Builder is Fortnite’s first-ever build-based rhythm game
- Karta partners with NoCopyrightSounds for the game’s music library
- Two new big songs just added: Royalty by Egzod & Maestro Chives and Invincible by Deaf Kev
Karta, an award-winning metaverse studio pioneering the world of in-game experiential marketing, continues to push the boundaries of music game innovation as its latest project, Beat Builder, reaches 100,000 players.
Beat Builder is an interactive music rhythm game where players put down walls, ramps, floors and cones to the beat of the music. Centred on building a core Fortnite gameplay feature used in its very popular Battle Royal, Beat Builder is the first-ever build-based rhythm game on the platform. As well as being a music-filled experience played for fun, the game is also used as a practice tool for players to improve their game-playing skills on Fortnite.
To create the game’s eclectic music library, Karta has partnered with NoCopyrightSounds, a copyright-free record label and music platform. Focusing on drumstep, phonk and trap electronic music for now, with artists such as Twisted, if found, XTOM and Lost Sky, players interact with the stems of each song that have their own visual world to match the vibe. Karta aims to develop the game further, updating it with a plethora of new music and genres such as metal, K-pop and rock. The long-term aim of Beat Builder is to integrate artists into Fortnite to share their music with fans, with the game becoming a recognised platform for exploring new artists and music.
Reaching 100,000 players is a significant milestone for a new metaverse game with Beat Builder continuing to grow in popularity since its launch recently. To mark the milestone, Karta has updated the game with two of NCS biggest songs; Royalty by Egzod & Maestro Chives and Invincible by Deaf Kev and is already planning further extensions, partnerships and new seasons.
“We’re thrilled that Beat Builder has gotten off to such a great start,” the Chief Executive Officer for Karta, Erik Londre, said. “We wanted to create a rhythm game that felt 100% Fortnite native, where the music is connected to the platform’s core building gameplay. A rhythm game that makes you a better gamer is an idea that excites us a lot.”
“Beat Builder truly encapsulates what Karta is all about; innovative and forward-thinking design that combines incredible music with interactive gaming in one entertaining place,” the Chief Growth Officer for Karta, Tony Barnes, said. “Music’s presence in the metaverse is evolving and we think Beat Builder has the potential to become its own platform for artists and brands to authentically connect to a Fortnite audience through gameplay and new music. We can’t wait to develop it and see how it grows.”
Since launching in 2021, Karta has worked with brands such as Amazon Music, McDonald’s and Hugo Boss. As well as working with Spotify on its iconic global campaign, Spotify Wrapped, to gamify the listening habits of Spotify users and bring this into the metaverse. Through these partnerships, Karta is reshaping entertainment experiences in the metaverse and creating meaningful connections between brands and their audiences. In the past year, the London-based studio has also worked with global artists like Nicki Minaj for her Gag City experience in Roblox, K-pop giant Blackpink with its hugely popular Blackpink the Palace and Twice with its Twice Square, which has become the most successful persistent music experience on Roblox.
“We’re very happy to provide the music for Beat Builder, a brilliant new game that gives players the chance to interact with the music like never before,” the Brand Manager for NCS, Charlotte Lee, said. “It has the potential to become a go-to platform for music gaming and we’re proud to support it.”
Beat Builder is available now to explore on Fortnite. For more information, go to www. Karta. game.
eSports
Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov is a New Virtus.pro Player
Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov (pictured), one of the most decorated and famous players in CS2, a Major champion and winner of the Intel Grand Slam, is moving to Virtus.pro.
“The arrival of star players always generates excitement within the club and among its fans,” the Chief Executive Officer for Virtus.pro, Nikolai Petrossian, said. “Denis is a well-known figure in the world of eSports with an impressive list of major victories and exceptional skill. Few players won both at Major and Intel Grand Slam events.
“Our CS2 roster is strong thanks to teamwork, a clearly defined playstyle and the individual talents of our players. Transferring players with outstanding skills to improve specific areas is a common practice in sports. I am confident that Denis joining will give a powerful boost to the team in the upcoming challenges in Dallas, London and beyond.
“Denis will replace Nikolay ‘mir’ Bityukov in the VP lineup. Nikolay has been a loyal and valuable member of our team and we express our gratitude for his contributions. Nikolay ‘mir’ Bityukov is open to offers from other teams.”
“Virtus.pro is a top team,” Sharipov said. “The core of the roster has won a Major not a while ago and all the players are in their prime and ready for victories right now. We share the same ambitions and goals. Besides, I’m also excited about the idea of playing with Jame as he’s one of the most unique IGLs in the game. Can’t wait to adapt to my new team and start doing what I came here for, winning trophies.”
Sharipov has dozens of victories at elite tournaments, including:
- PGL Major Stockholm 2021
- Intel Grand Slam Season 3
- BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020
- IEM XVI – Cologne
- EPL Season 14
- BLAST Premier: World Final 2021
In addition, Sharipov was among the top-ten best players of the year by HLTV four times.
Updated Virtus.pro CS:GO roster:
- Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali (captain)
- Evgeny ‘FL1T’ Lebedev
- David ‘n0rb3r7’ Daniyelyan
- Petr ‘fame’ Bolyshev
- Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov
- Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev (coach)
- Pavel ‘PASHANOJ’ Legostaev (analyst)
- Nikolay ‘mir’ Bityukov (substitute)
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