Cheats have always been a part of video games, but their rapid growth over the last few decades has made cheating a veritable side business. You don't have to look far to find that for every game worth making a cheat for, there is always someone, somewhere, who is diligently working out how to violate the rules. And in most cases, they are charging for it.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' phenomenal success, especially in the Chinese market, has made it the target of countless cheats. One of them, if not the largest, was called "Cheat Ninja" until it was shut down in January of this year; Vice was able to track down the original developer of this cheat and hear his amazing story.

This person was given the alias Catfish, for the obvious reason that they remain wanted by Chinese authorities. Cheat Ninjas became the focus of a major legal investigation in early 2020, and key individuals were arrested in January of this year.

Catfish, however, was different.

Tipped off by the unusual behavior of the arrested individuals, Catfish used the "good old hammer" to destroy all the drives, erased the cheat servers, and began hiding out.

The scale of the cheat ninja's activities was revealed in April when police announced charges against the arrested individuals, claiming that they had made $77 million from cheating (Catfish believes this figure is nearly accurate thanks to bitcoin inflation, but earlier estimates were $46 million (it was $46 million).

This was from subscribers paying $10 to $15 per month, and Catfish estimates that at its peak it was attracting 1,000 new subscribers per day and earning a staggering $350,000 per month.

"This is very different from the cheat market, though," Catfish says.

"I think we did it purely because it was the best cheat for the most popular game," Catfish says.

Catfish seems to be a bit of an odd fish, at one point saying that he wanted to "ruin [these companies'] games and damage their profits," but apparently changed his mind and said he would quit the "pay-to-cheat scene."

There are many fascinating aspects to this side industry. For example, when Cheat Ninja disappeared, and even before that, there were a string of scammers trying to pass off their software as Cheat Ninja. The brand politics of these scammers! What a world!

The Vice article is very detailed about the role of Cheat Ninja and Catfish and is worth a read.