# Valorant

14 Hacker News commenters recommended Valorant and 21 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free-to-play tactical shooter from Riot Games whose anti-cheat people credit with keeping cheaters rare. Critics object that its kernel-level anti-cheat is invasive and can crash PCs.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong anti-cheat, few cheaters (4 comments): "they have (at least for some time) reduced the number of Cheaters in games like Valorant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47945388)) "the game with the strongest protection is Valorant and it works very well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47386794)) "valorant is by far the most least cheater fps game on the market" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385085))
- Praised as a successful, cool implementation (2 comments): "I would say it was wildly successful in Valorant." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48000495)) "this is something cool done by valorant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48138298))

## What people warn about

- Invasive kernel-level anti-cheat (3 comments): "Now Secure Boot is required to run Valorant games, which should be a harbinger for what will happen to your online banking experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49935837)) "Valorant should take a look at why their anticheat is just as effective without requiring kernel access." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48812303)) "often forcing you to turn on more intrusive features to continue playing the game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46109912))
- Crashes and bricked PCs (2 comments): "gave me my first blue (or was it red??) screen I'd seen on Windows in years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108069)) "bricked his PC on Sunday trying to enable Valorant’s BS anti-cheat" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45909806))
- Cheaters still get through (2 comments): "i searched "hacking in valorant" and found hella complaints about aimbotting and wallhacking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398437)) "Valorant has cheaters in pro league that still play tourneys and compete for cash." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038510))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Arc Raiders](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arc-raiders.md): 52 recommend
- [Fortnite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fortnite.md): 33 recommend
- [Counter-Strike](https://hackerapproved.com/p/counter-strike.md): 30 recommend
- [Counter-Strike 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/counter-strike-2.md): 27 recommend
- [Overwatch 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/overwatch.md): 22 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Valorant", https://hackerapproved.com/p/valorant/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).