Star Wars Battlefront 2 smashes Steam records despite rampant cheating

Even though it's been out for nearly eight years, and the PC version is rife with cheaters, Star Wars Battlefront 2 just hit a new all-time Steam peak with over 35,000 players hopping on the shooter at once over the weekend. That's a whopping 2,000% player increase since April's peak of 1,500 Steam players.

What's causing people to flock to Dice's shooter set in a galaxy far, far away now of all times? Well, the not-too-distant May the 4th celebrations and the well-received release of Andor Season 2 seem to have contributed to the recent surge, with May setting a previous Steam peak of just over 18,000 players. But Battlefront 2's massive 90% off sale on Steam is the most likely reason for the shooter's new highs. For context, it's currently just $3.99 in the US and £3.49 in the UK, and it ranks among the best Star Wars games, if you ask us.

Speaking of culprits, some of those 35,000 people might have encountered one of Battlefront 2's most annoying issues over the weekend - cheaters. There are few things more frustrating in the world of videogames than somebody with a hack obliterating you and your team when you're just trying to unwind a little in PvP.

As user MashedProtatoes on the StarWarsBattlefront subreddit shows, it seems it's not uncommon to encounter players using hacks to turn themselves into the Star Wars version of One-Punch Man. Darth Maul's good, but he's not wipe-out-your-entire-squad-in-two-seconds good.

So, if you're thinking about taking advantage of the 90% off sale, then just keep in mind that the Galactic Assault mode is the primary playground for cheaters.

That said, even consoles aren't entirely safe, as the use of devices like Chronus Zen allows players to take advantage of its emulation and scripting abilities to help with assisted aiming and rapid fire triggers. There's a higher barrier for entry for console cheaters, and not as egregious an issue as PC hacks, for sure, but it's still present. Perhaps if the player base continues to grow, publisher EA might finally address or fix the cheating on PC.

If you're a fan of Battlefront 2's first-person perspective and want to play more great shooters, then take a look through our picks of the best FPS games on PC right now. Or, if you want to start new adventures in space, whether it's far, far away or not, why not give one of the best space games on PC a try?

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