The newly released PlayStation 5 version of Black Ops 1 has become overrun with cheaters exploiting ranking systems within days of going live. Players flooding online matches discovered multiple methods to artificially inflate their progression, with some gaining maximum Prestige status almost instantly through coordinated exploits in specific game modes.

The most prevalent abuse involved Domination matches, where bad actors would deliberately eliminate themselves repeatedly to accumulate massive XP gains. In some instances, the inverse occurred—defeating these cheaters resulted in legitimate players receiving massive negative XP penalties that essentially locked them out of competitive play entirely.

The development team moved swiftly to contain the damage by taking Domination offline across all playlists. They subsequently deployed server-side fixes and manually restored affected accounts to Level 20, enabling compromised players to resume their progression. These measures represent the first wave of anti-cheat improvements, with additional updates promised in future patches.

While the competitive community anticipated clean servers for these legacy titles, the rapid emergence of these exploits highlights ongoing challenges with porting older titles to modern platforms. The developers have committed to addressing remaining vulnerabilities as part of their continued support strategy for the relaunch.