Kaspersky: Minecraft is the Game Most Targeted by Cybercriminals

Minecraft game display (photo: Minecraft)

JAKARTA - A report from Newzoo reveals that global gaming revenue is expected to double by 2030 to 583.69 billion US dollars (9.17 quadrillion).

According to Kaspersky analysis, with increasing incomes and the number of gamers, the gaming industry continues to be a profitable target for cybercriminals, especially with the presence of popular titles used as bait.

Using data sourced from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) from July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023, the company's experts researched the top 14 games including:

• Mobile (if applicable) and desktop versions of Minecraft
• Roblox
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
• PUBG
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2)
• League of Legends
• World of Warcraft
• Apex Legends
• Diablo IV
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• The Legend of Zelda
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Final Fantasy XVI

In total, Kaspersky detected 4,076,530 gaming-related desktop infection attempts over the past year, impacting 192,456 gamers worldwide.

Of these, Minecraft was the top game used as bait for cybercriminals, accounting for 70.29 percent of all detections.

“This evergreen sandbox game had more than 160 million monthly active players in 2023. Threats using the game as bait affected 130,619 users globally during the reporting period,” the report on the Securelist website said.

Then followed by Roblox (20.37 percent), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (4.78 percent), PUBG (2.85 percent), Hogwarts Legacy (0.60 percent), DOTA 2 (0.45 percent) and League of Legends (0.31 percent).