A wallhack is a category of video-game cheat that allows the player to see enemies, items, or other game-state elements through solid geometry such as walls, terrain, and objects. Wallhacks are implemented either as visibility-checked ESP that highlights enemies even when occluded, or by modifying the game's wall material shaders to render walls transparent. Wallhacks are one of the oldest cheat types, dating to Quake 2 chams in the late 1990s.

An aimbot is a video-game cheat that automatically aims the player's weapon at enemies by reading game memory to locate enemy positions, calculating the angle from the player's camera to the target, and writing or simulating the input needed to snap or smooth the crosshair onto that target. Aimbots range from "rage" full-snap variants used openly to "legit" humanized variants that mimic real player flicks. They are the most common and most heavily detected category of FPS cheat.

What is ESP in Video Games?

ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) is a category of video-game cheat that overlays information about enemies, items, and game state onto the player's screen that the game would not normally reveal. Typical ESP features include 2D bounding boxes around enemy players, skeleton bones, health bars, distance text, weapon names, loot rarity highlights, and line-of-sight indicators. ESP is rendered either by hooking the game's render pipeline or by drawing through an external overlay.

Cheat vs Hack — What's the Difference? Honest Definition

Q: How is the Cheat Market Regulated?

The video-game cheat market is regulated primarily through civil litigation by game publishers (Epic, Activision, Bungie, Riot) rather than direct government regulation. Federal-court enforcement under the DMCA Section 1201 anti-circumvention provision, breach-of-contract claims based on game EULAs, and tortious interference theories produce six-figure damages against cheat developers and resellers. Criminal enforcement is rare; civil enforcement is consistent. South Korea, Japan, and China have stronger direct criminal laws against cheat distribution.

Q: What is an Undetected Cheat?

An undetected cheat is a video-game cheat that, at the moment of measurement, is not flagged by the target game's anti-cheat system — meaning no known signature in the anti-cheat scan database matches the cheat, no behavioral telemetry from the cheat's users has produced a confirmed ban, and the cheat is currently in active use without bans. "Undetected" is a time-bounded status, not a permanent property; every cheat is eventually detected. Industry shorthand for "undetected" is UD.

What's the Difference Between a Cheat and a Hack?

In modern gaming usage, "cheat" and "hack" are used nearly interchangeably to mean software that provides unfair gameplay advantages. Historically "cheat" referred to publisher-sanctioned codes built into games (e.g., contra konami code) and "hack" referred to unauthorized modification. Today "cheat" carries the gaming-specific connotation (aimbot, ESP, wallhack) while "hack" carries broader unauthorized-access connotations. Cheat developers prefer "cheat"; anti-cheat publishers and media often use "hack" in headlines. Functionally identical.

RawCheats Anti-Cheat Research Team — Anti-Cheat Research TeamUpdated May 12, 2026

The terminology question "what's the difference between a cheat and a hack" comes up often, especially among new buyers trying to understand cheat-industry vocabulary. The honest answer is that the two words have converged over the past three decades and are now used nearly interchangeably in modern gaming context, but they carry slightly different connotations that shape how they're used in marketing, media, and legal contexts.

Historical etymology

"Cheat" originated in single-player gaming during the 1980s-1990s, where game developers built in special inputs that unlocked invincibility, infinite ammo, level-skip, or developer-mode access. The Konami Code in Contra (1987), Doom's IDDQD god-mode (1993), and GTA's vehicle-spawn codes (early 2000s) were officially-sanctioned cheats. The term carried no negative connotation in single-player — it was a feature.

"Hack" originated in the broader software-modification context, dating to MIT in the 1960s. "Hacking" a system meant modifying it beyond its intended use. The term carried both positive (clever modification) and negative (unauthorized access) connotations depending on context.

Convergence in multiplayer gaming

As multiplayer gaming grew in the 1990s-2000s, "cheats" stopped being publisher-sanctioned and started meaning "unauthorized advantages" — wallhacks for Quake, aimbots for Counter-Strike, ESP for Half-Life. The "cheat" terminology migrated from single-player feature to multiplayer violation. Simultaneously, "hack" was applied to the same software, especially in news headlines and casual conversation: "Counter-Strike hack site shut down," "wallhack used in tournament."

By the 2010s, the two terms were functionally interchangeable in gaming context. Cheat-development forums (UnknownCheats, MPGH) use both. Commercial cheat sellers use "cheat" almost exclusively. News media uses both, often "hack" for sensational framing.

Connotational differences in 2026 usage

While interchangeable, the words carry subtle differences:

"Cheat" connotes:

Gaming-specific software (aimbot, ESP, wallhack, no-recoil)
Commercial-product framing ("RawCheats sells cheats")
Player-side acquisition (a player buys a cheat to use)
Lower legal-rhetorical temperature

"Hack" connotes:

Broader unauthorized-modification framing
Includes cheats but also includes non-gaming exploits (account hijacking, server exploits)
Used in legal complaints to imply seriousness ("a hack attack on our infrastructure")
News-media preferred framing for sensational coverage

In practice: a cheat seller calls their product a cheat. A game publisher pursuing legal action calls it a hack. Both refer to the same software.

Categories within "cheats/hacks"

Within the cheat/hack umbrella, the meaningful taxonomic distinctions are functional rather than nominal:

Aimbots — automate aim. See what is an aimbot.
ESP / wallhacks — provide information overlays. See what is ESP and what is a wallhack.
Triggerbots — automate shooting. See what is a triggerbot.
No-recoil — eliminate weapon recoil. See what is a no-recoil cheat.
Radar hacks — show enemy positions. See what is a radar hack.
Silent aim — invisible aimbot. See what is silent aim.
HWID spoofers — change hardware identifiers. See what is a HWID spoofer.

These are the categories that matter operationally. Whether you call any of them a "cheat" or a "hack" is purely stylistic.

Why publishers and media diverge

Game publishers in legal contexts prefer "hack" terminology because it implies more aggressive activity, which strengthens damages arguments. "He hacked the game" sounds more severe in front of a federal judge than "he cheated in the game." This is a rhetorical choice rather than a technical distinction.

Cheat sellers prefer "cheat" because it's gaming-native vocabulary, avoids implication of broader hacking activity (account hijacking, financial fraud), and matches buyer search behavior — buyers search "aimbot cheat" more than "aimbot hack" in Google's search data.

What this means for buyers

Buyer takeaway: when researching cheat products, use both terms in searches because vendors and reviewers mix vocabulary. The product called "Raw Fortnite Cheat" and the product called "Raw Fortnite Hack" would be the same product if both names were used by the same vendor. Functionally, the distinction is rhetorical, not technical.

See what is an undetected cheat, how is the cheat market regulated, and pair with our HWID spoofer pillar.