Grand Theft Auto V is the game that Brits want to cheat at the most, new research has revealed.
- Grand Theft Auto V is the game that attracts the most cheats, with over 103,000 searches a month for cheats on the GTA V game
- Sims 4 takes second place, with GTA San Andreas coming in third
- Rockstar Games’ titles flood the top ten, with the company having five entries
The study by online gaming site Spades Challenge analysed monthly Google searches to see what game the UK was most interested in finding ways to cheat.
It found that the nearly decade-old open-world title Grand Theft Auto V took the top spot, with more than 103,600 searches per month for cheats on the game. Rockstar Games have not been shy to add cheat codes to the title since it launched on last-generation consoles back in 2013, adding in more and more cheats with every version of the game, and it’s clear gamers want to take advantage of the new additions.
Sims 4 comes in second place, with more than 62,600 monthly searches for cheats for the life simulation game. The Sims series is another example of a franchise that embraces cheat codes, with legendary codes like ‘motherlode’ and ‘FreeRealEstate’ being stuck in players’ heads. The large selection of downloadable content has meant that since the release of Sims 4 in 2013, many more codes have been added for players to cheat as much as they want.
Coming in third is GTA San Andreas, one of four Grand Theft Auto titles in the top ten. Searches for cheats for the title are made more than 27,300 times a month. San Andreas was recently remastered for “GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition”, with all the cheats carried over from the original 2004 release.
| Game | Average monthly searches for cheats | |
| 1 | GTA V | 103,600 |
| 2 | Sims 4 | 62,600 |
| 3 | GTA San Andreas | 27,300 |
| 4 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 17,700 |
| 5 | Little Alchemy | 9,500 |
| 6 | Scrabble Go | 5,500 |
| 7 | Valheim | 5,300 |
| 8 | GTA Vice City | 4,300 |
| 9 | Little Alchemy 2 | 3,300 |
| 10 | GTA IV | 2,800 |
The 2018 Rockstar release of Red Dead Redemption 2 makes fourth place in the list with more than 17,700 searches for cheats for the title. Cheat codes for the game can be found online, but it gives players the option to find them naturally inside the open world, through newspapers available to buy in-game, and codes that can be found etched into walls and furniture around the game’s massive map.
Little Alchemy 1 and 2 and Scrabble Go make their way into the top ten as the only mobile games on the list. Searches for cheats in Little Alchemy receive more than 9,500 searches a month, searches for cheats in the sequel receive more than 3,300, and Scrabble Go cheats receive more than 5,500 searches a month.
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson from Spades Challenge said: “The combination of Rockstar Games’ titles being very popular and the developer providing players with lots of ways to cheat the game has certainly had a strong effect going off this top ten. The Sims series is also a popular title for cheats, with the player base being made up of lots of casual gamers who don’t want to spend too long grinding the game or just players who want to have a bit more fun in their gameplay.”
The study was conducted by Spades Challenge, which enables users to play unlimited games of Spades online, and against AI-generated players.
