Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund called ARC Raiders’ anti-cheat efforts successful after the studio banned what he estimated were tens of thousands of players. That is evidence of substantial enforcement, not proof of a verified decline in cheating: neither Söderlund nor Embark has published an independently audited game-wide cheating rate. Embark’s latest account, dated September 30, 2026, describes a layered detection system, permanent bans for cheating, and separate progress against coordinated matchmaking abuse.
What Söderlund meant by “successful”
In an IGN interview published February 6, 2026, Söderlund said Embark had been “pretty aggressive” about enforcement. He said he knew bans were being issued because people were contacting the studio and him to dispute them. He estimated that the studio had banned “probably tens of thousands of players so far.” Those are the CEO’s statements and estimate, not an independently audited count or a measure of how much cheating remained in the game. GamesRadar’s report of the interview
He also stressed the need to get sanctions right: “The banning process is obviously delicate because we need to make sure that we ban people that deserve to be banned.” Söderlund said clear mistakes should be remedied quickly. The appeal contacts he described show that enforcement was reaching players; they do not establish either the rate of mistaken bans or the rate of cheating.
In the same interview, Söderlund cited a broad estimate that 0.1% to 1% of a large-scale multiplayer game’s players may cheat. He was speaking generally, not reporting a measured ARC Raiders statistic. IGN interview
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How Embark’s anti-cheat disclosures have changed
Embark’s public descriptions show a system evolving over 2026, rather than one unchanged tool. The dates matter: different disclosures describe different stages of the stack.
| Date | What Embark or reporting said | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| January 8, 2026 | Embark announced planned ruleset and detection changes, anti-cheat updates, client-side fixes for an out-of-map glitch, and streamer tools intended to mitigate stream sniping. Embark news | These were planned measures, not reported proof that they had already reduced cheating. |
| February 6, 2026 | Söderlund described aggressive enforcement, estimated tens of thousands of bans, and emphasized accuracy. IGN interview | A CEO’s account of enforcement activity and incoming appeals, not an audited prevalence figure. |
| May 7, 2026 | Embark described Easy Anti-Cheat kernel-level protection alongside machine-learning models trained on player telemetry, other undisclosed layers, and work with Anybrain. It said every ban appeal is reviewed by a person. Embark news | A dated description of the stack at that point and the studio’s stated appeal process. |
| June 30 / July 2026 | Embark said the Denuvo Anti-Cheat rollout had been completed for all players and that early results were promising. PC Gamer reported an Embark chart in which accounts with unusually high “profit per minute” fell below 1% after action against duplication exploits. PC Gamer | The chart concerned suspected economy exploitation, not the share of players using third-party cheats. |
| September 30, 2026 | Embark described Denuvo kernel-level protection, Anybrain detections, and expanding in-house machine-learning models. It said known cheating leads to permanent bans, with restrictions on associated licenses and linked accounts, and hardware bans when evidence supports them. Embark news | The studio’s latest described system and sanctions policy as of that update. |
Embark has not disclosed every detection method, saying that revealing which cheat types its systems detect could undermine their effectiveness. Its descriptions therefore show the named components and policy, not the full technical implementation.
What the latest numbers measure—and what they do not
Embark’s September update reported results from a matchmaking intervention against coordinated “queue teaming”: separating known groups in matchmaking. Five days after the intervention began, the studio said 85% fewer players were engaging in that behavior, and that raids spoiled by it had fallen from around one in 50 to one in 300, without a meaningful impact on queue times. These are company-reported results about matchmaking abuse, not a measure of cheat-software prevalence. Embark’s September update
Likewise, the below-1% figure reported by PC Gamer relates to accounts with unusually high profit per minute after action against suspected duplication exploits. It should not be read as the percentage of cheaters. The ban estimate, economy-exploit chart, and queue-teaming figures describe different things and cannot be combined into a game-wide cheating rate.
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Why a suspicious signal may not trigger an instant ban
Embark Executive Producer Aleks said, “Anti-cheat systems can’t ban a player the moment something looks suspicious.” The September explanation is that detection evaluates behavior across multiple instances before action, to avoid sanctioning a legitimate player based on a single signal. Embark also says it reviews videos and streams that clearly show policy violations. This approach trades speed for confidence; the studio has not published a false-positive rate or appeal reversal rate. Embark update
ARC Raiders’ player-facing rules and appeals
Embark’s Help Center says overlays or game assistants are allowed only when they do not interfere with gameplay or provide an unfair advantage. Playing in a virtual machine is disallowed and may trigger anti-cheat action. The studio does not list the specific cheat types its systems detect. Embark Help Center: Anti-Cheat
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For appeals, Embark’s Anti-Cheat Team states: “Every ban appeal is reviewed by a person on our team.” That is the studio’s described process; it does not mean every appeal is granted or disclose how often bans are overturned. Embark Anti-Cheat Team update
Embark distinguishes pre-arranged coordination from interaction during a raid: teaming with someone encountered through proximity chat remains fair under its stated policy, while coordinating before a raid to gain an unfair advantage in a solo lobby is the behavior the matchmaking intervention targeted. Embark update
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How strong is the evidence that anti-cheat is working?
The public record supports a measured conclusion. Embark has described increasingly layered detection, permanent bans and related restrictions, a human-reviewed appeal process, and a quantified improvement against one specific form of matchmaking abuse. Söderlund’s estimate of tens of thousands of bans supports his view that enforcement was active. But the disclosed information does not establish a current, independently verified ARC Raiders cheating rate, a before-and-after game-wide reduction, or a false-ban rate.
So “successful” is best understood as the CEO’s characterization of enforcement progress—not an independently demonstrated claim that cheating has been eliminated or reduced by a known amount across the game.
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