BattlEye Bans in R6 Siege Explained: Account, HWID and Ban Waves
Rainbow Six Siege on PC uses BattlEye as its anti-cheat. A BattlEye ban in Siege can hit your account, your hardware, or both, and it does not always arrive the moment you are caught. This explainer covers the types of ban, how ban waves work, what you will usually see, and what to do if it happens to you.
What BattlEye does in Siege
BattlEye runs alongside the game while you play. It looks for known cheat software, changes to the game's memory and other signs of tampering. When it finds something, the result can be an immediate kick, a ban, or a note on your account that turns into a ban later.
Ubisoft also acts on player reports and its own reviews, so not every Siege ban starts with BattlEye. But when people talk about cheat bans in Siege, BattlEye is usually the source.
For how anti-cheats work in general, see our anti-cheat guide.
The three things that can happen
Account ban
An account ban blocks the Ubisoft account you were playing on from Siege. Cheating bans in Siege are treated as permanent, so plan as if that account is gone. Your hardware is not necessarily flagged. If a new account on the same PC plays normally for a long time, you probably only have an account ban.
HWID ban
A HWID ban goes further. Anti-cheats like BattlEye read identifiers from your hardware, such as drive serials, motherboard and network adapter details, and can tie a ban to the machine as well as the account. With a hardware ban, any new account you create on that PC gets banned quickly, often within a match or two.
If that sounds like you, read our R6 HWID ban fix, which shows how to tell the two apart and get back in.
Kicks
Sometimes BattlEye removes you from a match without a ban. Kicks can be caused by things like a corrupted install or software BattlEye does not like. A kick is not a ban, but if you were running a cheat when it happened, stop and check the status page before you try again.
How ban waves work
A ban wave is when a large number of accounts are banned at the same time. Anti-cheat teams often detect a cheat, then wait and collect a list of accounts using it, and ban them together.
Why wait? If accounts were banned the instant a cheat was detected, cheat developers would know straight away and change it. Waiting makes it harder to tell what was detected and when. It also means a ban can arrive days or weeks after the match that caused it.
What this means for you:
- Playing fine today does not prove a cheat is safe. A cheat can be detected quietly before any bans appear.
- Status can change without warning. This is why a cheat status page exists. Check ours before every session, and especially after a Siege update.
- Stopping after a wave starts may be too late for accounts already flagged, but it protects the ones that were not.
What a ban looks like
The exact wording changes over time, so we will stay general. Usually you will see one of these:
- A message when you start Siege or try to join a match saying your account has been banned, sometimes naming BattlEye.
- Being unable to queue, with an error that points to a ban on the account.
- Being kicked from a match with a BattlEye message, then finding you cannot rejoin.
If new accounts on the same PC show a ban message almost straight away, that points to a hardware ban rather than a single account ban.
Can you appeal?
You can contact Ubisoft support, but cheat bans are rarely reversed. If you were not cheating, an appeal is worth trying. If you were, it is more useful to spend your time on the steps below.
What to do after a ban
1. Work out which ban it is
Make a fresh Ubisoft account with a new email and play a few matches without any cheat loaded. If it gets banned quickly, it is probably a HWID ban. If it plays normally, it is an account ban.
2. If it is a HWID ban, spoof and clean
A spoofer changes the hardware IDs the anti-cheat reads, and a cleaner removes traces the game leaves on your PC. Our Temp HWID Spoofer:
- spoofs and cleans in one click,
- includes a Rainbow Six Siege cleaner,
- supports BattlEye, as well as Easy Anti-Cheat, Ricochet and FiveGuard,
- has a built-in HWID checker so you can confirm the change,
- works on any motherboard, UEFI or Legacy BIOS.
It is temporary, so your real IDs come back after a restart and you run it before each session. It supports Windows 10 and 11, except Windows 11 24H2.
3. Start a new account properly
- Spoof and clean first, then create the new Ubisoft account with a new email.
- Never log in to the banned account on that PC again.
- Play some normal matches before ranked.
4. Change what got you banned
If the old account was banned in a wave, the cheat you used may have been detected. Check the status page and only play when your cheat shows as working. If you were reported, look at your habits: our ranked tips and R6 ban-safety guide cover settings and play style.
Frequently asked questions
Are BattlEye bans in Siege permanent?
Cheating bans are treated as permanent, so plan as if the account will not come back. A hardware ban also does not expire on its own.
How do I know if I have a HWID ban?
Make a new account on the same PC and play without cheats. If it is banned within a match or two, you most likely have a HWID ban. The R6 HWID ban fix guide above goes through the signs.
Why was I banned weeks after I stopped cheating?
That is how ban waves work. Accounts are often flagged first and banned later in a batch, so the ban can arrive long after the match that caused it.
Does a spoofer remove my ban?
No. The banned account stays banned. A spoofer changes the hardware IDs BattlEye reads so that a new account on your PC is not linked to the old ban.