Warzone shadow bans explained | GamesRadar+

A Warzone shadow ban is a tricky thing to identify because it's hard to tell if you have been shadow banned or not. It's a way of dealing with cheaters and hackers which have been a big Call of Duty Warzone since its inception - basically put them all together and leave the normal players in peace. However, it looks sometimes innocent players, streamers and popular players have been shadow banned in Warzone too. Although it can be hard to tell given the rampart cheating problem in Warzone - are you in a shadow banned lobby full of hackers, or is it just a usual match. Here's everything you need to know about Warzone shadow bans including what it looks like when you are shadow banned and how to get unbanned in Warzone.

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What is a Warzone shadow ban? Being shadow banned essentially means you're "banned", but you're not explicitly told that or given a ban message. That's because you aren't stopped from playing Call of Duty Warzone, but instead you get placed into special lobbies that are different from the usual game.

Essentially, every lobby you get put into while shadow banned will only consist of other players that have also been shadow banned. This is Activision's method of ensuring all cheaters and hackers are unable to ruin the game for legitimate players. There's no warning for this however, so it can take a while for cheaters to realise they've been hit with a shadow ban in Warzone.

If you think you may have received a Warzone shadow ban for one reason or another, there are certain clues you can look for to try and work it out. The most obvious of these is the long queue times you'll be facing thanks to the small pool of fellow shadow banned players. Of course, you could also be facing long queue times thanks to a slow internet speed, narrow search parameters, or another external factor, but it's something to consider if you're concerned you've been shadow banned.

Apparently, when you get shadow banned, your ping will skyrocket to north of 300. So if you're in a match, you have reason to believe you're at risk of a shadow ban, and your ping starts causing you some serious grief despite your internet connection seeming stable otherwise, then it's another clue.

Finally, and perhaps the damning clue of them all, is if you're coming up against an obscene number of hackers and cheaters in your matches. It goes without saying that if you find every death suspicious and you're struggling to get any kills, you might be playing in a shadow ban lobby. Or you're just incredibly paranoid.

False positives do happen with Activision's ban detection system. It sucks but if it has happened and your ban hasn't been automatically lifted after two weeks, you can use the official Activision ban appeal system to try and get it sorted. Now it goes without saying that if you were hacking in Warzone, you're highly unlikely to get unbanned, but you can give the appeal a shot nonetheless. Good luck!

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Warzone shadow bans explained | GamesRadar+