Update 2: Twitch hasn't announced peak concurrent viewer counts, but a representative confirmed that DrDisrespect is now officially the record holder. "The highest peak concurrent for an individual is DrDisrespect with over 388K," the rep said. I'll update again with specific numbers if and when they become available.

Update: DrDisrespect's return stream has broken 387,000 concurrent viewers, surpassing Tyler1's 382,000 concurrents to set a new mark for an individual streamer on Twitch.

Original story: 

Famed PUBG streamer DrDisprespect returned to action today in his first livestream following a December 2017 confession of infidelity. It's a moment his fans were clearly waiting for, as he quickly racked up more than 350,000 concurrent views and may have even briefly kneecapped Twitch. 

The tweet relates to a brief moment where it appeared as though Twitch was having difficulty keeping up with demand, although I suspect that was more of a coincidence than a DrDisrespect-ful overload: Twitch has handled larger concurrent previously without any issues, including more than 1.1 million concurrents during its coverage of E3 2017. 

On the other hand, the return last month of notorious League of Legends streamer Tyler1 attracted more than 382,000 viewers, and Twitch appeared to stagger under that load too. Tyler1's audience was the largest ever for an individual streamer on Twitch, but it's possible that DrDisrespect will break that record. 

Also, someone made him a pretty nice action figure.

Having drank into the wee hours of January 1 during new year celebrations, I'd technically made an arse of the Jan Ban/Dry January before it'd even started. I thereafter made it to January 12, before succumbing to a boozy weekend because I've clearly got no willpower. 

Luckily for us, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp is better dedicated to the cause. Instead of abstaining from alcohol, though, it's clamping down on cheaters—having banned one million rule-breaking players in January alone. 

That's according to Battleye, the anti-cheat analysis software that governs the battle royale shooter's servers. Taking to Twitter, it said: "We have banned over 1,044,000 PUBG cheaters in January alone, unfortunately things continue to escalate."

This comes off the back of PUBG Corp's recent moves to block Steam family sharing, as well as its new and incoming "anti-cheat solution". More information on the latter can be found via this blog post, which explains programs that hook into the game's files will be blocked. One of the programs in question is the popular post-processing tool ReShade.  

"The new anti-cheat feature will block different helper programs that alter the graphics or aid in gameplay in some way," reads a PUBG forum post. "What these programs have in common is that they all hook into our game and transform game files. Programs that are not used to gain an unfair advantage can also be blocked if they behave like cheats. 

"One of the popular programs that will be blocked is ReShade. You will not be banned for having it on system but you will no longer be able to play PUBG while it is installed. Please uninstall ReShade (or any other blocked program) and launch the game again. Some players may find that reinstalling PUBG is also necessary."

Update: PUBG's latest anti-cheat measures were expected to roll out on Monday at 6pm PT/Tuesday at 2am GMT, but have been delayed. ReShade has however been disabled as planned—the details of which follow. 

"As announced, the new anti-cheat solution that was to be applied today has been delayed," says an update post on the PUBG forum. "However, BattlEye, a part of our anti-cheat solution, has blocked ReShade. For you to run the game, you must uninstall ReShade. If the game files are already damaged, you must also reinstall the game.

"ReShade not only behaves like a cheat program but can also be used for cheating, and must therefore be blocked. Please be advised that this is a permanent block."

PUBG Corp cites an "unexpected issue... while testing its compatibility" as the reason for the new system's delay, however expects to update players "soon".  

Since its full release late last year, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp has sought to boost game performance and come down hard on cheaters. With the latter in mind, an early version of a "new anti-cheat solution"—which was hinted at last week—will roll out on live servers next week. A new update explains what it's all about. 

"This solution will complement the systems that have been developed and implemented already," reads this Steam Community post, written by Dohyung Lee, the dev's head of service management and anti-cheat. "Its main focus for now is blocking unauthorized programs but it will be further developed to broaden the scope of its abilities."

In doing so, helper programmes which might alter the game's graphics or "aid gameplay in some way" will be blocked; so too could programmes that behave like cheat applications, even if they don't give users an unfair advantage.

Admittedly, I've only come across obvious cheaters on a couple of occasions—once by way of auto-aim, and another who I'm certain used a visibility-through-walls exploit—however the game's subreddit is filled with disgruntled players who claim to have suffered at the hands of those breaking the rules. 

To this end, PUBG Corp has banned upwards of 1.5 million cheaters since its Early Access arrival last year—and has even reported taking down 100,000 rule breakers in a "single wave".

The latest update suggests improvements are in-line for its in-game report function, while Steam family sharing will be deactivated in due course. 

Here's Lee on that: 

We have an announcement for those of you using family sharing on Steam. We had allowed this feature so that the account holders who own PUBG can use their character with other Steam accounts if they wanted to. However, we have decided to deactivate this feature because we have identified a number of vulnerabilities that are being exploited. Please understand that we are introducing this measure to fight abuse and ensure a fair environment. 

We would like to sincerely thank all players who have always played fair, respected other players, and enjoyed PUBG as part of a healthy community. We will do our utmost to minimize the exposure of players who play fair to those who don’t. We ask for your understanding and active feedback so that we can create an enjoyable environment for PUBG together.

Lee concludes by saying PUBG's anti-cheat solution will be upgraded "steadily" following its implementation next week, and will be evolved over time to ascertain a long-lasting "fair game environment."