Is Nexus Mods Safe and Virus-Free in 2023?

Mods have been part of the gaming community since the 1980s and were first used to add artistic details to the games. Since then a lot has changed and mods are staples of the gaming community. Talented modders do not just add artistic details anymore, they create new worlds and push game engines to the maximum. In this article, we will discuss if, one of the most popular mods sites today, Nexus Mods, is safe and virus-free.

To even download mods, the Nexus Mods site requires users to register and log in to the website. While logged in, the website also insists on downloading the mods through Nexus Mods manager which prevents any viruses and corrupted files that can damage your personal computer. So yes, Nexus Mods is safe and virus-free.

This article will answer a few more questions for a deeper understanding of what the Nexus Mods website really is, and has there ever been a security breach or something of that sort on the site. Stay with us if you are interested!

Do Nexus Mods Have Viruses?

As with any online digital file on the Internet, there is a possibility of having a virus on your file. That is not unusual – people who have the job of scanning these files are not perfect and can miss a little detail that will automatically alert your Firewall that something is wrong. Even if your Windows Defender alerts you your mod is quarantined, there can be tons of other things happening that are alerting your computer nonstop.

After saying all that, Nexus Mods has a group of specialized people who are actually scanning hundreds of mods every single day. It is not easy but out of all the mods that are uploaded on Nexus Mods every day, they have a good track record of providing users with safe files. The fact that you need to be registered and use the special mod manager to download the files, says a bit about the seriousness of their site being safe.

Also, we got to say that anyone can make a mod and try to post it on the website, and yes they can be corrupted but if it does not end up on the main website, there is got to be something wrong with it.

All in all, the Nexus Mods website is 99 percent of the time virus-free.

Is Nexus Mods Still Active?

Nexus Mods had humble beginnings, as any starting anew project. This was founded out of love for the games and determination that the talented modders have a place where they can post their creations and inventions for everyone to see. Also, the frustrations with original games which are essentially good but failed in some departments were a huge motivation for this website.

That drive is going full speed and the people of the community are still very much active. Their game collection contains exactly 1,749 games from 151,025 authors, 33,496,282 members of the website and 5,901,629,007 downloads to date. That is absolutely insane. The most popular games for modding are, you guessed it, Bethesda games, with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim having 68,000 mods and 1,9 billion downloads, followed by Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and so many more.

So yeah, it really is active.

Is Nexus Mods Still Free?

Even though the Nexus Mods website has over 33 million users and more than 5 billion downloads, the site is still free. You do not have to pay for your mods, and anyone who wants a mod for a certain game can easily acquire it. However, registration is required, and you need to be logged in to be able to download your wished mods.

The only monetary thing that is going on on the Nexus Mods website is the donation option for the creators, and some of them truly deserve it. In conclusion, the Nexus Mods are still free and will stay like that for the foreseeable future. This is surprising since most of the other websites turn to the pay-for-month option but there is a possibility that the gaming community is donating a lot of money to the site, and that is definitely deserved. The gaming community is really powerful.

Was Nexus Mods Hacked?

So after all this praise, is the Nexus Mods website that good, and without errors? Well, there was an incident in 2019. There was a security breach one day in November 2019, when staff noticed suspicious activity on their servers. They determined the third-party “intruder” breached their security and tried to access user records from the old user service (long-time accounts on the site).

They informed the community of the breach and suggested that they all change their passwords or do something else. All in all, it was not pleasant for Nexus Mods users since some of the people have the same passwords for other accounts on different sites. They also warned of possible phishing (sending fraudulent messages to people) and credential stuffing (a cyber attack that collects sensitive information) attacks.

In the end, the incident was talked about and the administrators of the Nexus Mods website managed to fix their security problems. However, the Internet is never fully safe so always be careful with passwords and security checks that need to happen at least two times a month.

Modders are a huge staple of the gaming community and these sites bring solutions to the problems games have and enrich the content of the games altogether. Hopefully, you enjoyed this article. Until the next time!