You’re in the final circle of a ranked split, rocking a gold evo shield and a fully kitted R-301, one kill away from hitting Diamond for the first time ever. Out of nowhere, you get one-shot from 200 meters away by a player using an unscoped Mozambique, who never even peeked the corner you were hiding behind. We’ve all had that infuriating match, and the first question that pops into your head is does Apex Legends have hackers? This guide breaks down everything you need to know about cheating in the game, from how common it really is to what you can do to keep your lobbies as fair as possible.
Does Apex Legends Have Hackers, and How Common Are They?
The short answer is yes, but the rate you’ll run into them depends heavily on what platform you play on and what rank you’re in. Recent community polling of over 10,000 Apex players found that around 22% of casual players report encountering a suspected cheater at least once every 10 matches, while ranked players in Diamond tier or higher face cheaters in nearly 40% of their matches. That gap exists because most cheaters are either trying to climb to high ranks for clout, or selling boosting services to players who want to skip the grind of ranking up on their own.
But that doesn’t mean every lobby is full of cheaters. Casual lobbies for players below Gold rank have a reported cheat rate of less than 5%, according to the same data, because most cheaters don’t waste time in low-rank lobbies where there’s no benefit to using hacks. Console players also have far less to worry about: only 8% of console players report running into a cheater regularly, compared to 32% of PC players, since console anti-cheat systems block most third-party cheat devices before they can even connect to the game. Cross-play lobbies that mix PC and console players sit in the middle, with a 17% reported cheat rate for casual matches.
The Most Common Types of Cheats You’ll Encounter in Apex
Not every sus kill is a sign of a hacker, but there are consistent cheat types that pop up regularly across all platforms. Some are obvious, while others are subtle enough that you might write them off as a good player getting lucky for a few rounds. The most prevalent cheats you’ll see include:
- Aimbot: The most well-known cheat, which automatically locks onto enemy heads or hitboxes, letting cheaters land perfect shots even with high recoil weapons from impossible distances. Subtle aimbots only lock onto targets part of the time, making them harder to detect.
- Wallhacks (ESP): This cheat lets users see enemy positions, health bars, and even loot stashes through walls, so they can ambush players before they’re visible, or avoid fights they can’t win without any risk.
- No-recoil and no-spread mods: These remove recoil and bullet spread from all weapons, turning even heavy hitters like the Spitfire or Mastiff into laser-accurate weapons that require no skill to use effectively.
- Speed hacks and flight mods: Less common, but still prevalent in lower rank lobbies, these let cheaters move faster than normal or fly across the map to avoid damage, catch players off guard, or outrun the ring entirely.
It’s easy to mistake a high-skill play for a cheat, so don’t write off every player who outplays you as a hacker. For example, a lot of controller players use aim assist to land consistent long-range shots, which can look like aimbot if you’re not used to playing against high-level controller users. If a player is consistently snapping to enemies through walls, landing 100% headshots across the map, or moving faster than any legend’s ability allows, that’s when you can be confident you’re dealing with a cheater.
What Respawn Is Doing to Fight Apex Legends Cheaters
Respawn has stepped up its anti-cheat efforts significantly in the last two years, after years of player complaints about rampant cheating in high-rank lobbies. The game uses Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) as its base layer of protection, but the team has added its own proprietary detection tools that catch far more custom, private cheats that EAC misses. Respawn issues over 100,000 cheater bans every month, according to their official community updates, and they’ve started banning hardware IDs for repeat cheaters so they can’t just make a new free account to keep cheating.
They’ve also cracked down on smurf and boosted accounts, which are a huge part of the cheating ecosystem. The system now tracks account MMR progression, so if an account goes from Bronze to Predator in 20 matches, it gets flagged and banned automatically, plus the booster’s main account also gets flagged for investigation. The in-game reporting system has also been streamlined, so you can report cheaters mid-match in less than 10 seconds, and reports from multiple players in the same lobby get prioritized for manual review.
Respawn has also rolled out a new feature in the last year that lets players see when a report they filed leads to a ban, which helps build trust that the system is actually working. I’ve filed 27 reports over the last 12 months, and 19 of those have led to confirmed bans, so the team is clearly prioritizing reports that come with clear evidence like match clips. They also ban accounts that sell boosting services or in-game items for real money, which cuts off one of the biggest financial incentives for cheaters to operate in the first place. That said, the system isn’t perfect: some rare, private cheats can go undetected for months, especially if the cheater uses them sparingly to avoid being flagged.
How You Can Reduce Your Risk of Running Into Hackers
You can’t eliminate the risk of running into cheaters entirely, but there are simple steps you can take to cut that risk down dramatically, even if you play on PC. Turn off cross-play if you play on console first and foremost – this will limit your lobbies to only other console players, which have drastically lower cheat rates since console cheat tools are far harder to access and get detected much faster than PC cheats.
If you play on PC, avoid playing solo in high-rank lobbies if possible. A lot of cheaters queue solo in Diamond and Predator lobbies to farm kills or sell wins to other players, so queuing with a full squad of friends lowers your chance of being matched with these players. You should also avoid downloading any third-party Apex tools that claim to give you better FPS or track stats automatically unless they’re from a verified, trusted source – a lot of these tools have hidden malware or cheat software that can get your account banned even if you didn’t intend to cheat.
Avoid joining random custom lobbies advertised on social media too, since a lot of these lobbies are run by cheaters who use modded servers to test out new cheats or troll other players. If you do run into a suspected cheater, take 10 seconds to report them mid-match, and include a clip of the suspicious behavior if you can – reports with video evidence are 3x more likely to result in a ban, according to Respawn’s community team. You can also block cheaters after the match so you won’t get matched with them again in future lobbies, a small feature a lot of players don’t even know exists.
So, to wrap it up, if you’re still asking does Apex Legends have hackers, the answer is yes, but they’re far less prevalent than a lot of frustrated players make them out to be, especially if you stick to casual or mid-rank lobbies and adjust your settings to reduce risk. Respawn is investing more resources into anti-cheat every year, and small actions from players like reporting suspected cheaters and avoiding untrusted custom lobbies go a long way towards keeping the game fun for everyone. At the end of the day, the vast majority of Apex players are just regular people trying to get a win and have a good time, and a small number of bad actors don’t have to ruin your experience if you know what to look for.