Tencent Game Security 2019 Annual Report: Cheating, Black Markets, and Account Security Trends

Tencent Game Security released the "2019 Tencent Game Security Annual Report," providing comprehensive insights into game security challenges across PC and mobile platforms. The report covers 12 key dimensions including cheating, black market operations, and account security.

Key Findings:

In 2019, both PC and mobile games saw continued intense对抗 against cheating, with cheat samples increasing in update frequency and total volume. PC game cheat samples removed increased by 19.9% year-over-year, while available cheat functions decreased by 2.1%.

ACT (action) and STG (shooter) games account for 88% of all PC game cheat functions.

Custom cheats remain the largest category in mobile games, increasing by 3% from 2018. Cracked client cheating increased by 5%.

As anti-cheat measures strengthen, more subtle cheating methods emerged: "carrying老板" (players joining cheater teams for benefits), spectator cheats in shooter games, and "escort" cheating where high-ranked players team with cheaters.

Black market operations diversified: selling gold, items, gift cards, account rental/sales, and boosting services. An estimated 6.36 million fake ID cards and over 13 million compromised devices are possessed by game black markets.

Steam account theft malware accounts for 95.7% of all stealware, with 12.78% of internet cafes having security risks from cheats.

45% of account thefts result from players being scammed. Offline trading, account sharing with boosters, and revealing passwords to acquaintances are primary security risks.

Malicious content in games focuses on pornography and advertising. Voice recognition systems in games like Honor of Kings and Peace Elite effectively block malicious audio.

61% of internet cafe machines have users who cheated, with over 25% having more than 3 cheating incidents per machine.

In 2019, 16 cases were cracked, 136 suspects arrested, involving 220 million yuan. The largest mobile game cheat aggregation platform was taken down.

Player awareness improved significantly - in one MOBA game, report success rate increased from 5.31% to 22.98%.