Those nearly instant Denuvo cracks follow summer releases like Sonic Mania, Tekken 7, and Prey, all of which saw DRM protection cracked within four to nine days of release. Then there's The Evil Within 2, which reportedly used Denuvo in prerelease review copies but then launched without that protection last week, effectively ceding the game to immediate potential piracy. Middle Earth: Shadow of War was broken within a day last week, and last month saw cracks for Total War: Warhammer 2 and FIFA 18 the very same day as their public release.

This week's release of South Park: The Fractured but Whole is the latest to see its protections broken less than 24 hours after its release, but it's not alone. We're certainly a long way away from the days when major cracking groups were publicly musing that Denuvo-style DRM might soon become unbeatable. Fast forward to the current holiday season, and major Denuvo releases are being publicly cracked within a day of their launch. If Denuvo's main value really is in fending off piracy at launch, it might be time for publishers to reconsider whether less than a week of protection is worth it, considering how unpopular Denuvo is with PC gamers.Further Reading Latest version of Denuvo’s DRM cracked yet againWhen we last checked in on the state of Denuvo copy protection in PC games, the latest version of the best-in-class DRM provider had provided about a month's worth of usable piracy prevention for survival-horror title 2Dark. Only about a dozen games have launched with Denuvo this year, at least according to Crackwatch, but those that have been cracked have been cracked fast. Launch day may be the most important for sales, but six days is still a very narrow window for DRM to be effective.

In 2019, multiple Denuvo games have been available to pirate the same week they launched. In 2018, it was common for Denuvo cracks to take weeks or months, with some big exceptions like a day zero crack for Final Fantasy 15. Hitman 2 and Just Cause 2 were both cracked within a day, but Assassin's Creed: Odyssey took 36 days, FIFA 19 took 63, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider took 64.

Scrolling down into 2018, and the crack times are generally much longer.

Devil May Cry 5 cracked: Day 0 (non-Denuvo.

Denuvo crack status 2017