Greetings, Soldiers,
May marked the transition from Season 2 into the highly anticipated Season 3, bringing with it the debut of Ranked play to Battlefield 6.
At the start of May, our Match Infection Rate (MIR) sat at 4.81%, a slight rise from the 4.68% recorded in our April assessment. For a deeper understanding of how these fluctuations occur, we encourage you to revisit our January update, where we detailed the technical intricacies behind these metrics.
Leading up to the launch of Season 3, we intentionally withheld several new detection features to maximize their efficacy upon release. As you can see from our May data, these measures initially proved highly effective. However, we also observed cheat developers shifting their tactics toward new circumvention methods, specifically targeting the emulation or spoofing of TPM 2.0 requirements.
While we were aware of these bypass techniques, we had previously granted exceptions to accommodate legitimate players who faced hardware compatibility issues—often due to incomplete BIOS implementations by motherboard manufacturers. We have since worked closely with these manufacturers to resolve those roadblocks, and all known technical hurdles have been cleared.
Consequently, we are moving to enforce full TPM 2.0 compliance. We want to be transparent: this shift will impact approximately 1.24% of active accounts. While our data confirms the vast majority of these instances are malicious attempts to circumvent our defenses, we recognize some legitimate users may still need to update their BIOS. To ensure a smooth transition, we will be providing dedicated articles and implementing in-game anticheat notifications to guide you through the process. While we aren’t announcing a firm enforcement date just yet, the change is imminent.
May: Results & Impact
Match Infection Rate (MIR): The percentage of matches negatively affected by at least one cheater. This figure accounts for all suspected bad actors, including those under investigation for whom we are still gathering definitive enforcement evidence.
The MIR opened the month at 4.81%, climbing to a peak of 5.61% by May 11th. Upon the rollout of Ranked play on May 12th, we activated the new security features outlined in our Season 3 update. The impact was immediate and positive, driving the MIR down to a monthly low of 3.14% on May 19th. Shortly thereafter, bad actors pivoted to TPM-spoofing techniques, which has caused the MIR to climb steadily to 5.09% as of this writing.
Throughout May, the EA Javelin Anti-Cheat successfully intercepted 218,695 attempts to tamper with the game, preventing them from ruining your matches. This surge in activity correlates with increased attempts to compromise the integrity of Ranked play. We are currently monitoring 110 (+11) active cheat-related entities—including software providers, hardware vendors, and resellers. Of these, 101 (+10) are reporting significant feature failures, downtime, or have been forced to cease operations entirely, accounting for a 91.81% disruption rate.
Keep the fight fair. See you on the Battlefield.
BF_SledgeHammer