Playing Dirty: Research Reveals The Nationalities That Cheat The Most At Video Games

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• UK gamers ranked 16th – more likely to cheat than their Aussie counterparts, but less likely to do so than players in the US
• Russia, Italy and Israel are the top three countries that cheat at gaming the most
• The US placed as the 11th worst cheaters, with Texas, California and Nevada residents revealed as the three most likely states to use a cheat code
• Gamers in Iceland are the most likely to cheat at the Assassin’s Creed series, Turkey takes the crown for GTA, while UK gamers are the biggest culprits for Animal Crossing cheats

Many people use video game cheat codes to boost their chances of winning, but which nation is home to the world’s biggest cheaters? Uswitch did the research to find out, and it’s revealed Russia, Italy, Israel, Japan and Sweden are the top five countries where gamers cheat the most.  

 

The World’s Biggest Gaming Cheaters

By analysing Google search volume data, Uswitch calculated how many people were actively seeking ‘cheat codes’, ‘cheats’ and cheat codes for specific games, in every country around the world, along with every state in the US.

The search volumes were then adjusted to account for each country’s population to create an index score, to make sure the data compared like for like. The results expose the top 20 countries most likely to cheat while playing video games.

The top 20 countries that cheat the most at video games (and the cheating index score):

Position	Country	Index ranking score
1	Russia	18.40
2	Italy	16.58
3	Israel	4.87
4	Japan	4.48
5	Sweden	4.03
6	Romania	3.13
7	Portugal	2.36
8	Turkey	2.34
9	Brazil	2.32
10	Denmark	2.28
11	United States	2.10
12	Ireland	2.00
13	Argentina	1.92
14	Poland	1.77
15	Croatia	1.52
16	United Kingdom	1.43
17	New Zealand	1.41
18	Canada	1.35
19	Australia	1.28
20	Bulgaria	1.13

 

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Half the countries in the top 20 are in Europe – Italy, Sweden, Romania, Portugal and Denmark all make the top 10, and gamers in the United Kingdom ranked as the 16th most notorious cheaters.

The US falls just outside of the top 10, in 11^th position. Close behind in 12^th is Ireland, Canada comes in in 18^th and Bulgaria rounds off the list in 20^th position.

From Minecraft to Mario Kart – Which countries cheat the most at different games? 

The study also looked into more than 50 of the world’s most popular video games to discover which country cheated the most at each game. Interestingly, Iceland features a massive 18 times – being found to cheat the most for a wide array of games, from the stealthy Assassin’s Creed series to beloved titles like Super Mario.

Malta clocks up eight appearances for games including the classic Resident Evil and Tomb Raider franchises, along with Borderlands and Crash Bandicoot. Turkey, Germany and Ireland all have three mentions and the UK appears twice, coming in as the biggest cheaters at Animal Crossing and LEGO Marvel Superheroes.

The no.1 country that cheats the most at different video games (and their cheating index score):

Game	Country	Index ranking score
Animal Crossing	United Kingdom	0.35
Ark	Turkey	0.37
Assassin’s Creed	Iceland	0.15
Battlefield	Iceland	0.09
Bioshock	Iceland	0.15
Borderlands	Malta	0.05
Call of Duty	Belize	0.28
Crash Bandicoot	Malta	0.27
Crysis	Iceland	0.21
Death Stranding	Slovenia	0.03
Doom	Iceland	0.50
Fable	New Zealand	0.04
Fallout 4	Germany	0.66
Far Cry	Malta	0.18
Final Fantasy	Indonesia	0.31
Fortnite	Germany	0.46
Forza	New Zealand	0.03
Ghost of Tsushima	Italy	0.03
Gran Turismo	Indonesia	4.77
Grand Theft Auto	Turkey	2.74
LEGO Marvel Superheroes	United Kingdom	0.44
LEGO Star Wars	Iceland	0.26
Little Big Planet	Ireland	0.01
Mafia	Czech Republic (Czechia)	0.29
Mario Kart	Barbados	0.10
Metal Gear Solid	Iceland	0.12
Minecraft	Turkey	5.40
Mortal Kombat	Indonesia	0.28
NBA 2K	Iceland	0.29
Need for Speed	Iceland	0.18
No Man’s Sky	Iceland	0.15
Pokémon	Barbados	0.70
RDR2	Ireland	1.19
Red Dead Redemption	Iceland	0.50
Resident Evil	Malta	0.07
Rocket League	Iceland	0.29
The Sims	Netherlands	2.12
Skate 3	New Zealand	0.43
Skyrim	Germany	1.15
Sonic The Hedgehog	Ireland	0.03
Spider-Man	Iceland	0.12
Spyro	Malta	0.29
Starcraft	Iceland	0.44
Super Mario	Iceland	0.26
Tekken	Malta	0.04
The Last of Us	Iceland	0.18
The Witcher	Malta	0.07
Tomb Raider	Malta	0.09
Tony Hawks	New Zealand	0.02
Uncharted	Iceland	0.12
Warcraft	Iceland	0.26

 

Which US states cheat the most at video games?

According to the study, gamers in Texas are more likely to cheat than any other US state, and California, Nevada, Georgia and New Mexico make up the rest of the top five.

When looking at the specific index scores of each US state – although none are as high as Russia’s or Italy’s in the worldwide list – Texas’ score of 2.6 is roughly around the same level as Portugal, which made it to 7^th place in the global analysis.

The top 10 US states that cheat the most at video games (and the cheating index score):

Position	US State	Index ranking score
1	Texas	2.60
2	California	2.25
3	Nevada	2.19
4	Georgia	2.12
5	New Mexico	2.06
6	Hawaii	2.03
7	North Carolina	2.02
8	New York	1.90
9	Maryland	1.88
10	Tennessee	1.81

 

To see the full research, including the top 50 countries that cheat at video games the most, visit: https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/worlds-biggest-gaming-cheaters/