PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS can ban the PC itself, not only the account. KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct let it restrict play "on your hardware devices" when someone uses unauthorized programs or hardware, the PUBG Support ban form lists "Hardware Ban" as an issue type of its own, and KRAFTON's anti-cheat team said in a December 10, 2021 dev letter that hardware bans were something it had been issuing "for some time now."
KRAFTON's 2025 anti-cheat review counted about 7.81 million accounts permanently banned for cheat programs as of November 2025, so this is not a rare penalty. The sections below stick to what KRAFTON has put in writing for PC players: what gets a machine restricted, which anti-cheat does it today, how long it lasts, how to tell the PC was banned and not just the login, and what gets a banned PC back into a match.
Does PUBG Ban Your Hardware?
PUBG does ban hardware, and KRAFTON says so in three separate places. The first is the KRAFTON Rules of Conduct for PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS. One of its rules covers unauthorized programs and hardware devices, and the penalties it names include a permanent game ban and restrictions on the hardware devices used. A later clause says the company may stop users from running the game when misconduct is traced to a specific hardware device.
The second is PUBG Support. When a banned player opens a ticket and picks "Ban", the Issue field offers Permanent Ban, Temporary Ban and Hardware Ban as different choices, alongside Teamkill, Teaming and Gameplay Interference. KRAFTON would not list a hardware ban there if it did not issue them.
The third is KRAFTON's own history. Its 2021 anti-cheat dev letter describes a new hardware ban technology built with special algorithms and added to Zakynthos, PUBG's in-house anti-cheat. The letter credits that upgrade with a near 30% drop in the metrics that track players meeting and reporting cheaters.
The difference matters because account bans and hardware bans block different things. An account ban stops one KRAFTON or Steam login. A PUBG hardware ban is a block on the PC instead of the login, which is how hardware ID bans differ from account bans in every game that uses them: a brand-new login on that machine hits the same wall.
What Gets a PC Hardware Banned on PUBG
PUBG hardware bans follow the same offenses that draw KRAFTON's heaviest account penalties. PUBG Support publishes a penalty table with the maximum penalty for each kind of misconduct, and the cheating rows sit at the top of it:
| Misconduct (from PUBG Support's table) | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|
| Use, develop, advertise, trade or distribute unauthorized programs and hardware devices | Permanent ban |
| Investigation into the use of unauthorized programs and hardware devices | 3-day ban |
| Modification of the game client, servers or game data | Permanent ban |
| Exploiting major bugs and glitches | Permanent ban |
| Abnormal gameplay | 30-day ban |
The table comes from the PUBG Support page on bans, which adds that restrictions are not lifted or shortened however many times a player contacts support.
KRAFTON's definition of unauthorized hardware is broad. Its June 12, 2024 terms revision added Direct Memory Access cheat boards to the list by name, next to programs that intercept traffic between the game and its servers, hacks, scripts, bots and trainers. PUBG Support adds three cases players often miss: programs that alter the game even when they are not cheats, programs that read information from the game, and cheats or macros made for other games still break PUBG's rules.
The Rules of Conduct also reach past a single account. When KRAFTON finds that a player created several accounts on one device, or from one IP address, to commit misconduct, it may sanction every account tied to that device or address, even ones used on a different PC or console.
Which Anti-Cheat Issues PUBG Bans Now
Steam's store page for PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS shows KSS (Krafton Security Services) as the game's anti-cheat, in the box marked "Uses Kernel Level Anti-Cheat". KSS is KRAFTON's own service, and it sits among the kernel-level anti-cheat software that loads a driver at the deepest level of Windows.
Older guides still call PUBG a BattlEye game. PUBG ran BattlEye in earlier years, and PUBG Support still carries a February 2022 article about a BattlEye driver error, but the label Steam shows today is KSS. KRAFTON's dev letters describe the systems it runs on PUBG:
- Zakynthos, the in-house anti-cheat KRAFTON introduced in January 2021. KRAFTON upgraded it on August 6, 2025, and its weekly notice for August 4 to 10 that year counted 58,234 accounts permanently banned for DMA-based cheating after the upgrade.
- A kernel-based detection feature announced on August 11, 2025, which scans for abnormal code once the PUBG client launches and shuts down when the game closes.
- An AI-based detection framework that flags abnormal behavior, plus video review of reported players, which KRAFTON's 2025 review credits with about 39,000 of its 7.81 million permanent bans.
KRAFTON does not say which of these issues a given hardware ban, and it does not publish which of the identifiers a Windows PC reports its device restrictions read.
How Long a PUBG Hardware Ban Lasts
KRAFTON publishes no fixed length for a PUBG hardware ban. Two of its own documents point in different directions, and both are worth reading before assuming the worst.
The penalty table treats cheating as permanent: using unauthorized programs or hardware devices carries a permanent ban at its maximum. KRAFTON's Weekly Bans Notices on pubg.com list the nicknames of permanently banned accounts with the first three letters masked.
KRAFTON's August 2, 2024 anti-cheat review says something else about hardware bans specifically. It refers to "the hardware ban method that issues temporary bans depending on the situation," admits the method confused players, and says the team planned to refine where it applies. So a PUBG hardware ban can be temporary, and KRAFTON has not published the rules for when.
KRAFTON's later roadmaps push the other way. Its June 28, 2025 anti-cheat roadmap says it is building strong hardware-based authentication to stop banned users from coming back with new accounts on the same device, including attempts made through ID spoofing. Its March 24, 2026 roadmap repeats the plan to advance hardware-based re-entry blocks.
Signs Your PC Is Banned, Not Just the Account
PUBG Support does not tell players the exact reason for a ban. Its article for banned players says KRAFTON withholds the details for security reasons, so no official checker will confirm a hardware ban for you. The signs are practical:
- A clean account with no rule breaks behind it is blocked on the same PC.
- The block survives reinstalling PUBG and changing the Steam login.
- The same account plays normally on a different computer.
One message looks like a hardware ban and is not. "Your client will now close due to the detection of an unauthorized device" is PUBG detecting a macro mouse or similar device. PUBG Support's fix is to unplug the device and restart the game, and to send support the maker and model of the keyboard and mouse if the message keeps appearing.
If the signs point to a hardware ban and you believe it is a mistake, the official step is a PUBG Support ticket with "Hardware Ban" picked as the issue. The full route for appealing a PUBG ban through Player Support, including what to write and what KRAFTON does and does not reverse, has its own guide.
What Clears a PUBG HWID Ban, and What Does Not
A PUBG HWID ban survives the usual fixes because it is tied to the PC rather than the login. The common options, checked against what KRAFTON documents:
- A new account does not work. The Rules of Conduct allow sanctions on every account a player made on one device for misconduct, and the re-entry blocks in KRAFTON's roadmaps target exactly this.
- Reinstalling Windows or PUBG changes files, not the hardware identifiers a device restriction is built on.
- A VPN changes the IP address only, while the restriction sits on the hardware.
- An appeal is the right first step if the ban is a mistake. PUBG Support says it does not unban accounts with evidence of a violation.
- New hardware works only if it replaces whatever KRAFTON's system reads, and KRAFTON does not say which parts those are.
An HWID spoofer is the other route, and it only covers the hardware side. Saturn's PUBG HWID spoofer changes the identifiers the PC reports (motherboard and SMBIOS, disk serials, CPU, TPM, RAM, GPU, monitor EDID, network MAC and USB devices, among others), and that lifts the hardware side of the ban on that PC. It does not touch the PUBG account: the banned account remains banned, so play continues on another account. Saturn runs in two modes, and how temporary and permanent spoofing differ decides which one fits. Temporary mode masks the IDs while Saturn is running, the original ones come back when you close it, and profiles are unlimited. In permanent mode Saturn changes the IDs a single time for one profile; if that profile is banned later, a new profile is a new purchase. Saturn covers PUBG; before you play, check the BattlEye line on the live status page. The free trial lasts 24 hours, needs no card and asks only for an email address.
PUBG HWID Ban FAQ
Is a PUBG HWID ban permanent?
Often, but not always. KRAFTON's penalty table puts cheating with unauthorized programs or hardware at a permanent ban, while its August 2024 anti-cheat review says its hardware ban method can issue temporary bans depending on the situation.
How do I know if my PC is hardware banned on PUBG?
PUBG gives no exact reasons for bans, so look at the pattern. A clean account blocked on the same PC, and working on another computer, points to a hardware ban rather than an account ban.
Does a new Steam account get around a PUBG hardware ban?
No. A hardware ban follows the PC, and KRAFTON's Rules of Conduct allow sanctions on all the accounts a player made on one device for misconduct.
Does PUBG still use BattlEye?
The anti-cheat PUBG lists on Steam today is KSS (Krafton Security Services), and KRAFTON also describes its in-house Zakynthos system in its dev letters. Lists that still show PUBG as a BattlEye game describe an earlier period.
Will an HWID spoofer unban my PUBG account?
No. A spoofer clears the hardware side of a ban on your PC; the PUBG account KRAFTON banned stays banned.