Broken Arrow is a new modern-warfareRTS gamedeveloped by Steel Balalaika with immersive military battles in an escalating global conflict. After being the most wish-listed strategy game on Steam at the time of its launch, and receiving mostly positive reviews in the beginning, the new RTS received heavy fire after Chinese streamers were reportedly banned and accused of cheating.
While Broken Arrow has indeed been affected by cheaters, the Chinese streamers in questionappear to have been wrongly accusedand may have just been exploiting an in-game mechanic. The bans led to an onslaught of negative reviews, but despite the carnage, Broken Arrow is still pulling ahead of its main militaryRTS competitor, Warno.
Military RTS Games Warno And Broken Arrow Compete For RTS Supremacy
Broken Arrow isn’t the only sizeable force in the modern military RTS space, with its biggest competitor being Warno, a WW3 battle simulator which has been doing well for itself, but fans are flocking to Broken Arrow regardless of the cheating fiasco backlash. As you can see in the charts, Warno’s numbers have gone down considerably since the launch of Broken Arrow on June 19th, 2025.
Developers Steel Balalaika didn’t shy away from a head-on clash with cheaters and revealedupdate 1.08, which includes improvements to their anti-cheat system.
The team has also been expanded with new members dedicated to thoroughly reviewing all cheating reports, ensuring fairness in the ban process. With this added expertise, we’re confident the staff will be even more efficient in detecting and addressing cheaters.
—Steel Balalaika
While Broken Arrow now has ‘Mixed’ reviews on Steam, it’s mostly due to thereview bombingdone by members of the community who were outraged by the bans and cheating accusations.
Stopping gamers from using cheats that disrupt the experience of others is a tedious war that many developers have to deal with, andsometimes innocent gamers get caught in the crossfire, but Steel Balalaika has statedthey’re not backing down.
The studio states it is “not going to stop our fight with cheaters, and we will continue working on improvements for our anti-cheat.”
While they may not be out of no-man’s land just yet, and the scars from the banned streamers drama may still be visible for quite some time, it appears Broken Arrow could survive the barrage of review bombing. Steel Balalaika have been hard at work trying to make things right and ensure their fans are competing on an even playing field.
More than 5000 accounts have been banned from playing in multiplayer since the launch of the game because they were caught cheating.
Since the launch of Broken Arrow, the player base of its main competitor, Warno, has dipped substantially according toSteamDB. Steel Balalaika is looking to keep the momentum going and has stated they are not only committed to improving theiranti-cheat efficiency, but they’re also working on implementing balancing and stability changes.
