In November 2020, Respawn Entertainment banned 419 top-ranked Apex Legends players for exploiting a glitch to easily beat low-ranked players. Now more than 700 top-ranked accounts have been banned for cheating and other illegal actions in the game.

Respawn security analyst Conor Ford revealed that stat on Twitter earlier this week; as more than 700 Apex Legends accounts ranked from Gold to Predator had been banned over the weekend.

In a tweet, he wrote:

“700+ accounts used for cheating in ranked (Gold-Pred) have been permanently banned since last Thursday.

This does not, and will not, include any accounts that used an infinite heat shield exploit. Love you all.”

700+ accounts used for cheating in ranked (Gold-Pred) have been permanently banned since last Thurdasy. This does not, and will not, include any accounts that used an infinite heat shield exploit. Love you all ???

— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) March 16, 2021

In an email to PCGamer, Ford added that about 180 of the banned accounts were among the top two Apex Legends ranks; Diamond and Predator, while the remainder were either Gold or Platinum.

However, the ban excluded infinite heat shield exploiters because apparently “using an exploit like that isn’t grounds for a permanent ban”. Ford further revealed that across all game modes and regions, Respawn Entertainment usually bans around 100,000 Apex players per month and is now approaching a whopping two million bans in total.

That’s a lot of players.

Ford wrote:

“Some are banned before they [enter a match].

Some just hop onto a hacked account and rage hack in a pub and are instantly detected.

The ranked series will see less cheaters generally, especially in higher ranks, as they require larger amounts of time put in while going undetected to make it to that level.

A substantial amount are also caught in Bronze to Gold.”

The developer is always on the lookout for new and old cheats. In fact, Ford revealed that he even has a list of repeat offenders that he keeps track of.

“I have a list of my habitual cheaters that I track daily and monitor but for the most part it’s random people trying out some hacks and trying to boost their stats.

Or make a name for themselves with their ‘skill’ (usually an aimbot) and try to get big on Twitch.”

It is the hope of Ford and many others in the Apex Legends community that one day, cheating will be “very rare”. However, he clarified that having no cheaters at all would be unrealistic.

He wrote:

“There is a large market and economy for cheat makers and many players want cheats for any game they play in.

That’s just the way some people want to game and that’s what I’ve learned since taking on this position.”

Apex Legends recently launched on Steam in November 2020 and on the Nintendo Switch just earlier this month. As the game gets more popular, there will likely be more players taking advantage of exploiting glitches and cheats. Developers like Ford surely have their work cut out for them.