How China’s Steam Ban Affects Gamers Around the World

You might have heard that China recently banned the global version of Steam.

It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise considering the country had already limited playing times for citizens especially children and has a long, rich history of blocking Western sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Wikipedia

Is this move a bid to create a domestic alternative in a protected market, or a way to save face amid revelations that Chinese players cheat more than any other gamer in the world, who knows?

This article will look into the ban and what it means for everyone else. 

What the Ban Means for International Players 

While it’s sure to annoy gamers in China, the ban might be a blessing in disguise for players around the world. 

Any serious gamer knows that Chinese players love to hack and cheat.

We don’t like to stereotype, but it’s beyond that now. There comes a point when we have to consider the Chinese tendency to cheat as an objective fact.

If there’s one hacker in a PUBG, Apex, or CSGO game more often than not that hacker is Chinese, and the chat is telling him/her to leave because everyone knows what’s coming.

BattlEye the company that created PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ released recent data from the company’s anti-cheat tech provider, indicating that 99% of accounts that have been banned for cheating are from China.

Irrefutable, wouldn’t you say. 

This problem has repercussions beyond the lobbies too. It has spawned an entire grey market of Steam accounts, mass-produced and traded in China so cheaters don’t need to worry so much about getting their accounts banned.

The run-on effect of this is it increases the chance that your Steam account will be hacked because it has a resell value, pulling hackers from all over the world into this grey economy.

It’s inevitable that an account with is hacking will get banned. By buying accounts players can get back into lobbies sooner with better stats, and skip the grind. 

Why Do Chinese Players Cheat

Obviously, we are generalizing. There are 1.2 billion people in China and for every player who’s loading up the aimbot, there’s a thousand who aren’t.

If you ask Chinese people on Reddit or Quora there’s a clear trend in all their answers.

China is a fiercely competitive society. From birth, this fierce competition to outperform your peers, to cut out your slice of the cake is drilled into Chinese from their parents, from their schooling system, and achievement is held highest of all. 

The South China Morning Post reported that In recent years, cheating has got so out of control that, three years ago, in the small town of Zhongxiang, Hubei ( 湖北 ), a group of gaokao invigilators found themselves under siege as enraged parents and students trapped them in their office and threw rocks at the windows, shouting, “We want fairness! Let us cheat!”.

The gaokao is the National College Entrance Examination. Success or failure in it will entirely decide the rest of a child’s life.

In many other countries, cheating is looked down upon. The English have an expression, it’s just not cricket! That means it doesn’t matter if you win if you do it in a dishonorable way.

When Australian bowler Trevor Chappell bowled the first underarm ball in an international cricket match he won the important game for Australia and was booed off the field by his home crowd. Former captains and even the Prime Minister lambasted the move as an unsportsmanlike act of cowardice.

In China, he likely would have been applauded for ensuring victory.

What if You’re A Chinese Gamer Who Still Wants Access To Global Steam

There are some incredible Chinese gamers and it will be a shame to see them go. The incredible skills of MMing are without equal, and we could watch his PUBG montages all day. Following in his footsteps are millions of eager gamers who want to pit their skills against the world, without aimbots or hacks.

For these gamers, the only option is a VPN. We’d recommend you get Surfshark right now and jump back in the international lobbies because you enrich the game and it’s a pleasure to have you. 

A VPN tricks your ISP and your government into thinking that you’re accessing a different site. The ISP will only see that you’re accessing the VPN server, which for now isn’t illegal. Steam will think that you’re a player from whatever country you choose to connect to a server in. 

In Summary

China’s block on global Steam is expected to significantly reduce the amount of cheating. We understand if you’re frustrated but you need to remember that not every Chinese player is a cheat. You can’t be too hard on Chinese people for cheating, because it’s more socially acceptable in their culture which is so competitive it encourages it. Finally, if you’re a Chinese player and you want to access global Steam, your best option is a VPN.

This is a paid guest post.