Just over 600,000 Steam accounts were banned in the month of December, a new monthly ban record.
The punishment spike coincidentally falls in the same month that Valve made its popular first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive a free-to-play game, offering a look at both how the swap boosted player (and cheater) counts and how Valve stepped up its enforcement during that first month.
Data spotted by Nors3 on Twitter shows that Valve issued 609,373 VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) bans in the month of December, a modest 500,000 increase from November’s numbers (according to the third-party tracker SteamDB) and what looks to be new all-time record.
SteamDB’s count for the month is a little bit higher at 611,497, but its week-by-week breakdown shows that the bans hit in 5 waves throughout December, with each giving between 56,000 and 85,000 accounts the ax.