Valve bans more than 40,000 Steam accounts

SteamDB, a third-party database tool, has uncovered a massive spike in Steam account bans. First reported by Dot Esports, more than 40,000 accounts could be involved.

Valve sends out a steady stream of data that third-party sites like Steam Spy use to make sense of the famously secretive storefront. SteamDB keeps track of the number of account bans per day, among other things. When the Steam Summer Sale ended on July 5, SteamDB detected a massive spike in bans with an estimated 40,411 accounts shut down.

Charlie Hall/Polygon

When it comes to cheating, Valve does not mess around. Those who get caught by Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) can end up with a single game ban or an account ban, so anyone interested in gaming the system needs to plan ahead.

Many cheaters take the opportunity of a Steam sale to stock up on cheap copies of games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Then they spin up multiple accounts in order to test which hacks are discovered by VAC. A ban this big could mean that Valve is making a statement and cracking down on that practice.

Swept up in the purge was also an estimated $8,674 worth of cosmetic items like weapon skins.

We’ve reached out to Valve for confirmation and more information.