When Losing At A Game Isn’t An Option
Surely, everyone has cheated at least once while playing games. Desperate times call for desperate measures. In 2023, a study identified the US states most likely to engage in game cheating, with Alaska taking the top spot.
SecureCheats conducted research using Google data to see which states had the most searches for cheats in games per 100,000 people. This was accomplished by determining the popularity of the most common cheat-related searches in each state and factoring for its population.
(1). The study discovered that Alaskans were the MOST prone to cheating in gaming. According to the survey, there are on average 3,392 searches for cheats in the state each month, which, when adjusted for population, translates to around 462 searches per 100,000 individuals.
Everyone has a motive for cheating in games, but why do Alaskans cheat the most? What drives them to exercise such an action? Curious…..
(2). The state of New Mexico was second overall, with 8,793 cheating searches conducted each month. When the population is taken into consideration, there are around 416 searches for cheats per 100,000 people.
Cheating Happens When Winning Matters Too Much
People play video games for a variety of reasons, including personal interests and hobbies. However, the notion of losing a game will make us angry at times. You don’t have to bet money on a game; it’s the idea of losing that weighs on our mind, causing that competitive edge to kick in.
The same is true for those who play both professional and amateur games. If you bet money on a poker game, you’ll pay close attention and take the game more seriously, given that money is involved. Undoubtedly, many individuals would act similarly if they put money on a sports game, or any game for that matter. Regardless of whether you’re playing for money or not, some individuals feel compelled to cheat their way through a game since, as previously said, the thought of losing does not sit well with them.
But ponder on this: Would you be happier and less competitive if you won at everything? Or is losing essential since it provides a chance for growth?
Cheating Becomes The Answer When Games Get Tough
(3). Oklahoma was ranked third on the list, with an average of 16,323 searches for cheats conducted each month. Accounting for population, there are around 406 cheat searches per 100,000 people.
(4). Arizona, the southern state, was fourth on the list, with the second-highest number of cheating searches in the top ten, at 28,886 every month. However, when the population is taken into consideration, there are around 393 cheat searches every month.
28,886 searches per month is a significant number. Certainly, many of us can attest to this. When you’re playing a game and get stuck on the same mission for weeks, if not months, due to its difficulty. After some point, you’ll lose patience and feel driven to find a cheating method to progress to the next level. Being trapped on the same level for too long can be annoying and redundant. So you may have to engage in some deception. Besides, the desire to know what the following level provides boosts our curiosity.
Popular Games That Drive Players To Look For Help
(5). The state of West Virginia rounded out the top five, with around 389 searches per 100,000 people for cheats, totaling 6,912 searches every month.
For those who didn’t know, the most popular games to cheat at in the United States included ‘The Sims 4‘, which receives over 250,000 searches per month, followed by ‘Words with Friends‘, which receives over 160,000, and ‘Grand Theft Auto 5‘, which receives over 70,000.
Cheating in Grand Theft Auto games is understandable. The entire series was enjoyable, particularly San Andreas and the fifth edition. However, my significant other had difficulties completing a particular mission. So, eventually, he looked up the gameplay for GTA V on YouTube and discovered the answer to his struggle. Sometimes cheating is necessary in gaming, or we would never get through the rest of the game.
Commenting on the findings, Karl Schmidt, Head of Content & Research at SecureCheats, said:
“Cheating in games has become a very broad thing, with it once referring to secret codes to change a gaming experience before multiplayer games were a thing, it now is used by those wanting to get the upper hand over others in online environments, completely altering the definition. Therefore, it’s interesting to see which areas have a stronger interest in cheating, and what these specific people are wanting to get out of said interest.“
Methodology
Using a variety of gaming and cheating terms, monthly search volumes averaged over the previous 12 months were determined for each US state. The search volumes were then gathered and adjusted for the population by dividing them by 100,000. The states were ranked based on their average monthly search volume per 100,000 people.
