Call of Duty players are complaining that they are getting shadow-banned for no good reason, and it seems that the game's reporting system is at fault. The shadow-ban problem seems to affect multiple Call of Duty titles such as Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, with some players reporting that they have also been affected in older titles like Black Ops Cold War. Without so much as an acknowledgment of the issue from Activision, many players are trying to find solutions, so they can enjoy games in the popular franchise without being locked out.
The light at the end of the tunnel of shadow-bans was the update to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 anti-cheat system that arrived with Season 3, but this doesn't seem to have resolved the issue. Some players are reporting that they have received upwards of 10 shadow-bans making the game unplayable for up to 10 days at a time. Activision has a ban appeal system that affected players can use, but it can take up to three business days for Activision to respond via email.
Several Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 players have proposed solutions to the ongoing shadow-ban issue, albeit with varying degrees of success. Reddit user XDCOTTON reports that flushing their DNS, using the default DNS set by their ISP, and reinstalling the game seems to resolve their issues after being shadow-banned six times over the course of five weeks. Another Redditor, LiteralLlama3333, suggests closing any application that affects peripherals such as Corsair's iCUE or Razer's Synapse. They also went so far as to remain silent throughout their matches to be sure they didn't get reported for chat-related reasons. Many others are suggesting that players wait a while after the shadow-ban is lifted, but this seems to have mixed results.
The general consensus around the shadow-ban wave seems to be that the Call of Duty anti-cheat system allows for players to spam report others and penalizes players automatically based on the number of reports they receive. There are certainly legitimate cheaters out there who deserve to be banned, and for many games a reporting system is necessary to help purge the community of cheaters.
The shadow-ban issue could be a contributing factor to the dramatic Call of Duty player count drop that was reported recently, however, this is pure speculation. Some frustrated players are saying that the only way to resolve the shadow-ban problem is to uninstall the game and never play it again, and it is likely that there are at least a few Call of Duty players who have done just that.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.