Between January 8 and January 12, 2026, Riot removed over 340,000 Valorant accounts in a single ban wave. It was the largest one in the game's history. A Vanguard developer confirmed it publicly, and a second wave followed weeks later that took out roughly 500,000 more accounts globally, most of them tied to bot farms.
If you bought a Valorant account in the last six months, or you're thinking about buying one, this is directly relevant to you.
What triggered the 2026 Valorant ban wave?
Riot has been escalating its anti-bot enforcement since Vanguard rolled out to League of Legends in 2024. The tech they built for League gave them cross-game data, and they started using it to flag Valorant accounts that showed bot-like behavior patterns.
The January 2026 ban wave specifically targeted accounts that were leveled by automated software. Bot farms create hundreds or thousands of accounts, run them through enough games to reach the competitive unlock threshold, and then sell them on marketplaces like G2G, PlayerAuctions, and various Discord servers.
Riot introduced a detection system that checks whether account levels came from a single hardware setup or IP address. If large numbers of accounts trace back to the same machine, they all get suspended. The January wave was the first time this system ran at full scale.
How HWID bans changed everything for Valorant account buyers
Older ban waves mostly hit individual accounts. You'd buy an account, it might get flagged for suspicious login location changes, and that one account would get banned. Annoying but limited.
HWID bans are different. Riot's Vanguard now fingerprints the hardware of every machine that logs into a Valorant account. If you buy an account that was created or leveled on a machine that Riot has already flagged, that ban can follow the account to your computer. Worse, if Riot flags your hardware because of a banned account you purchased, it can affect your other legitimate accounts too.
Riot confirmed they've issued over 2.3 million hardware bans since January 2026 alone. That number is a 47% increase from the year before. Vanguard tracks mouse movements, reaction times, and decision patterns at a granular level. Inhuman consistency or sudden skill jumps between matches trigger review flags.
This matters because some of the accounts being sold on third party sites right now were created before the January ban wave but haven't been flagged yet. Vanguard silently monitors accounts for weeks before acting. An account that looks clean today might already be marked internally.
What does this mean if you already bought an account?
First, check if the account is still working. If you bought a leveled account in the past few months and it's still active, that doesn't mean it's safe. Riot's pattern is to flag accounts over time and then ban them in large batches.
Signs your purchased account might be at risk:
The seller advertised it as a "fresh" or "hand-leveled" account but the match history shows unusual patterns (identical game durations, same agents every match, unusually low combat scores)
The account was significantly cheaper than comparable listings, which often means bot-leveled inventory the seller is trying to move quickly
You received the account with a generic email attached rather than one the seller clearly owned
If you're using a purchased account as your main, consider whether the skins and rank on it are worth the risk of losing your hardware to an HWID ban. Because that ban wouldn't just kill the purchased account. It could lock your personal account too, if both have ever been logged in on the same machine.
How Riot detects bought accounts specifically
Beyond the bot farm detection, Riot tracks account transfers through behavioral signals. When an account suddenly logs in from a different country, plays on different hardware, and shows different gameplay patterns (sensitivity, crosshair placement habits, agent preferences), Vanguard flags it for review.
Riot hasn't published the exact criteria they use to distinguish a bought account from someone who just moved or got a new PC. But trading communities have noticed that accounts are more likely to get flagged when multiple indicators change at once: new IP, new hardware, new playstyle, and a password change all within a short window.
Some sellers try to work around this by doing a "gradual handover" where they keep playing on the account from the buyer's location for a few days. This used to reduce flags. With the 2026 Vanguard updates, it's less clear if that still works.
What to actually consider before buying a Valorant account right now
Buying or selling Valorant accounts violates Riot's Terms of Service. That has always been true. What's changed in 2026 is the enforcement. Riot is actively investing in detection rather than relying on reports, and the consequences now extend to your hardware.
If you buy from a marketplace, check the seller's account age and review history. Recent sellers with bulk inventory are more likely to be running bot farms
Ask for match history screenshots before purchasing. Bot-leveled accounts have obvious patterns that are easy to spot if you know what to look for
Never log a purchased account onto the same machine as your personal account unless you're willing to risk both
Consider whether the $30 to $80 you'd spend on a smurf account is worth potentially losing a main account with years of skins on it
If you already bought an account and it's still working, don't assume it's clean. Riot bans in waves, not individually
The 2026 ban waves aren't a one-time cleanup. Riot's anti-cheat team has made it clear this is ongoing. The next wave could be tomorrow.