Analysis: Game Companies Have Filed a Record 93 GitHub Takedowns in 2026, Led by Minecraft’s Owner
- Video game companies have filed 93 takedown notices against GitHub projects so far in 2026, the most in any year since GitHub started publishing the notices in 2011.
- The previous high was 81, in 2024.
- GitHub posts a public copy of each DMCA notice it processes, with personal details removed.
Video game companies have filed 93 takedown notices against GitHub projects so far in 2026, the most in any year since GitHub started publishing the notices in 2011. That count comes from a Game Empress review of every notice in GitHub’s public DMCA repository, through November 5.
The previous high was 81, in 2024. October 2026 alone brought 25 notices, the busiest month on record. Twenty of them came from Mojang, the Microsoft-owned studio behind Minecraft.
The numbers at a glance
- 480 takedown notices were filed by or for 38 game companies and industry groups between 2011 and November 5, 2026.
- 308 of them (64%) came in 2023 or later.
- The notices covered about 34,100 repositories. About 30,900 of those (91%) were in notices filed since 2023.
- Nintendo accounts for about 18,600 of the repositories (55%), and 96% of those were in notices against emulators, console firmware or decryption keys.
- Microsoft and Mojang filed the most notices, 139, and 136 of them were about Minecraft.
How we counted
GitHub posts a public copy of each DMCA notice it processes, with personal details removed. Its repository held 22,453 dated notices on November 6, 2026. We searched all of them for game companies, their games and their legal agents, then read the 746 notices that matched to decide who filed each one and what it went after.
We counted only takedowns filed by or for a game company. Counter notices from users, notices about a company’s non-game products, such as Tencent’s WeChat, and fights between individual modders were left out. The final count is 480 notices.
For each notice we counted the repositories it listed. When GitHub’s note says it processed “the entire network” of forks, we used that larger number instead. A repository can show up in more than one notice, so the repository totals are an upper estimate, not a count of unique projects.
Nintendo’s emulator fight hit the most code
Nintendo filed 91 notices, and 67 of them came from 2024 on. In the ten years from 2014 to 2023 it filed 24. We classed 71 of its 91 notices as targeting emulators, console firmware or the decryption keys that emulators need.
Two notices stand out. Nintendo’s April 29, 2024, notice against the yuzu emulator was processed against a network of 8,535 repositories. Its February 26, 2025, notice against Ryujinx covered 4,238.
In both, Nintendo said the emulators get around the “technological protection measures” in Switch games, a claim under the anti-circumvention part of copyright law. The pressure continued this year. GitHub published seven Nintendo notices dated August 17, 2026, covering about 400 repositories between them.
Minecraft’s owner files the most notices
Microsoft and Mojang filed 139 notices, more than any other game company, and 136 concerned Minecraft. Before 2023 they had filed 16. Since then the pace has jumped: 42 in 2023, 24 in 2024, 15 in 2025 and 42 so far in 2026.
Most target EaglerCraft, a version of Minecraft that runs in a web browser. Mojang’s notices describe it as a clone or decompiled version of the game. GitHub published eight Mojang notices dated September 14, 2026. One covered a fork network of 1,196 repositories and another covered 925.
A separate May 14, 2026, notice, filed by the brand-protection company Tracer for Microsoft, covered a network of 1,349 repositories, including projects named LCEMP and 4jcraft. GitHub said it found no valid anti-circumvention claim in that notice but processed it on other copyright grounds.
Leaked code is the most common reason
Leaks drive more notices than anything else. We counted 146 notices, about 30%, aimed at leaked or stolen source code, unreleased builds or internal files. Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse filed 27 of them, Epic Games 25, Tencent 15 and Take-Two 13.
Some examples from the notices themselves:
- Zenless Zone Zero, August 2022: HoYoverse said a user had cracked the game package and posted its code just after a closed beta test.
- Roblox, April 2024: Roblox said the repositories were copies of its leaked internal GitHub Enterprise source code.
- GTA V, September 2024: Take-Two said a repository of GTA V code classes came from a December 2023 security breach and that the YimMenu mod menu used it. GitHub processed the notice against 1,311 repositories.
- Honor of Kings: World, October 2025: Tencent said a repository held scripts from the game, which was still in development.
Take-Two’s fight over leaked code goes beyond GitHub. As we reported when CyberLeek threatened to release a GTA 6 build, the company has moved past copyright takedowns and is trying to identify the people behind the GTA 6 leaks.
Who filed what
| Company | Notices | Repositories covered | Main target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft / Mojang | 139 | 9,343 | Minecraft browser ports and decompiled code |
| Nintendo | 91 | 18,617 | Switch emulators, firmware and keys |
| HoYoverse | 37 | 404 | Leaked game code and private servers |
| Epic Games | 34 | 419 | Leaked Unreal Engine and Fortnite code |
| Activision Blizzard | 22 | 115 | Leaked code and builds |
| Electronic Arts | 21 | 41 | Leaked code and tools |
| Tencent (games) | 18 | 55 | Leaked game code |
| Take-Two / Rockstar | 16 | 2,465 | GTA source code leaks |
| Nexon | 16 | 312 | Private servers, piracy tools and leaks |
| Sony Interactive | 12 | 1,180 | PS3 jailbreak and firmware tools, mostly in 2011 |
By target, our count of the 480 notices breaks down like this: leaked or stolen code and assets 146, decompiled games and source ports 106, emulators and console firmware or keys 84, piracy tools and DRM bypasses 40, fan games and mods 24, game assets and ROMs 22, copied games and websites 20, private servers 17, cheats 15 and other 6.
Emulators make up fewer than one in five notices but about 19,100 of the repositories, because the networks of forks behind them are so large.
What a takedown means for a project
Under GitHub’s DMCA policy, a valid notice gets the reported repositories disabled. When a network of forks is larger than 100 repositories and the filer says the forks infringe just as the parent does, GitHub’s notes say it processes the notice against the whole network.
Developers who think a takedown is wrong can file a counter notice. Under the same policy, GitHub re-enables the content after 10 to 14 days unless the copyright owner sends proof that it has filed a lawsuit. We found only about 15 published counter notices answering game companies’ takedowns, against 480 takedowns.
What the data can’t tell you
GitHub’s repository shows notices, not outcomes. It does not say how many projects came back after edits, how many users moved to other sites or whether any notice led to a lawsuit. GitHub also publishes some notices weeks after it receives them, so the 2026 total may still grow.
The count also misses notices that do not name the company or its games, and requests sent to other hosts. Our report on October’s Slay the Spire 2 and Poki takedowns covers one recent wave in detail. Court fights over game code are in our Gaming Law Tracker.