Apex Legends anti-cheat team has handed out nearly 6,000 hardware bans since late April

Respawn's anti-cheat team dropped a transparency update on July 13, confirming that nearly 6,000 hardware bans have been issued across PC and console since the end of April. The move targets repeat offenders and account-spinners who try to dodge standard bans.

Hardware bans are the team's most severe tool — they lock a specific device out of Apex Legends entirely, meaning a fresh account won't save you. Most of the 6,000 bans hit PC players, but Respawn says console enforcement is being ramped up deliberately. The team was clear that not every ban earns a hardware ban: the punishment is reserved as a proportional response to high-severity cheating, with the stated goal being reform over permanent exclusion. Serial cheaters and malicious bad actors are the primary targets. The bans are also not new intel buried in a footnote — Respawn says they've been included in the team's regular ban-count communications all along, pointing to a May 21 Reddit post as an example.

Apex Legends has battled a persistent cheating problem on PC for years, and hardware bans have been a recurring community request precisely because account bans alone do little to stop determined cheaters. Respawn's willingness to name the number and commit to expanding console hardware bans is a more direct acknowledgment than the studio has typically offered on this front.

The team says it's continuing to invest in new detections and stronger enforcement. No specific timeline was given for the console expansion, but the language — "planning to utilize them even more" — suggests it's already in motion rather than a distant roadmap item.