By Sagar V. Mankar 
Phantom Overlay, a popular provider of cheating software for Call of Duty games, has announced it’s closing down its operations.
The company made the announcement through a statement on Telegram, saying it would “begin the process of closing down immediately.”
Despite the shutdown, Phantom Overlay plans to keep its services running for another month to allow customers with 30-day subscriptions to “get their full money’s worth.” The provider also promised partial refunds for those who purchased lifetime access.
This closure could significantly impact the cheating landscape in Black Ops 6, as Phantom Overlay’s software allowed players to use unfair tactics like aim botting while evading Activision’s anti-cheat systems. According to content creator ItsHapa, who shared the news on social media, this shutdown represents a positive development in the ongoing battle against cheaters.
However, not everyone in the gaming community shares this optimism. As Riot Vanguard analyst GamerDoc pointed out, “They will just move to another vendor. Cheats aren’t hard to create, dude; branding and marketing are.”
The timing of Phantom Overlay’s closure is particularly interesting given Activision’s recent efforts to strengthen its RICOCHET anti-cheat system in early 2025. The publisher has also been pursuing legal action against cheat makers, leading some players to speculate that Phantom Overlay might be making a “graceful exit” to avoid potential lawsuits.
Cheating has been a significant problem for Call of Duty since Black Ops 6 launched. The situation became so severe that developers had to implement console-only crossplay options for Ranked mode in both Black Ops 6 and Warzone, allowing console players to avoid matching with PC users where cheating is more prevalent.
In January, Activision acknowledged that its anti-cheat efforts “did not hit the mark” at the launch of Season 1, particularly in Ranked Play. The company had initially promised to remove cheaters within one hour of their first match, but failed to deliver on this commitment. Despite these setbacks, Activision claims it has recently banned over 19,000 accounts through improved RICOCHET systems.
What makes Phantom Overlay’s shutdown potentially more impactful is that many smaller cheat providers rely on its underlying technology. As one optimistic player noted, this could represent a “major blow” to the cheating ecosystem as a whole.