A Steam profile can say "1 VAC ban on record" or "1 game ban on record". Both mean the account was caught breaking the rules, but they come from different places. Here is the difference, and how to check any player for both.
VAC ban: caught by Valve Anti-Cheat
VAC is Valve's automatic anti-cheat. When it detects a known cheat on an account, it issues a VAC ban. VAC bans are permanent, and VAC-secured servers for that game stop accepting the account. More on how detection works: how VAC detection works in CS2, and on the length: how long a VAC ban lasts.
Game ban: issued by the game's developer
A game ban comes from the developer of the game, not from VAC. For CS2 that developer is Valve as well, so a CS2 game ban means Valve banned the account through something other than a VAC detection, for example after a review of reported matches or another detection system. Valve treats cheating bans in CS2 as permanent, the same as VAC bans.
In our own data, game bans are now by far the most common kind: the CS2 ban wave tracker counts new game and VAC bans per day among players checked on CSWatch, and shows the ban waves.
Side by side
- Who issues it: VAC ban, Valve's anti-cheat system; game ban, the game developer.
- On the Steam profile: both are listed ("VAC ban on record" or "game ban on record"), with the number of days since the last ban.
- Public: both are part of Steam's public ban data, which is what ban checkers read.
- What it means for a player you meet: either one on a CS2 account is a strong sign it was used for cheating before. An old ban on a different game says less about how someone plays CS2 today.
What about VAC Live?
VAC Live can end a CS2 match while it is being played when it detects cheating. That is about the match; whether the account also gets banned is a separate step. See what VAC Live is.
How to check a player for both
Paste their Steam profile link into the VAC ban checker. It shows VAC bans, game bans and how long ago the last one was, next to account age and community reports. To check a whole lobby at once, use the lobby check. Wondering what a ban does to the skins on an account? See what happens to skins after a VAC ban.
Check any account for VAC and game bans. Open the VAC ban checker