GTA 5 Loses 40% of Its Players on PC Due to Anti-Cheat Implementation

Following the addition of BattlEye to GTA 5 on PC, the Steam numbers have dropped from a consistent 140,000 concurrent players to around 84,000 at the time of writing, a 40% drop.

The drop in players isn’t because the game had many hackers, but because many of the game’s mods are no longer usable. In fact, according to some social media accounts, hackers have already been able to bypass BattlEye, which is considered a reasonably weak anti-cheat in the grand scheme of things.

One of the most popular free mod menus, Kiddions, has already announced on its discord that all of its mods and mod menus will no longer work for GTA Online and that its future “is very uncertain.”

The issue for Rockstar Games here is that 9 years is a lifetime when it comes to most games, and without an anti-cheat, the game has established itself with modding communities worldwide. When new players come to the game, they know what they are walking into, and for some, the core experience that Rockstar Games offers isn’t why they play; it’s the mods.

As for if Rockstar Games will revert this decision or not remains to be seen, but for the moment, it looks like GTA 5’s player numbers on PC will continue to dwindle.

What do you think of Rockstar’s decision to implement BattlEye anti-cheat into GTA 5 9 years after its release? Do you think they will revert the decision? Let us know in the comments, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Forums.

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