The State of Ransomware Q2 2026
Brief
For the past year, the ransomware conversation has centered on concentration: a handful of dominant RaaS operations controlling most of the damage, and a shrinking pool of active groups fighting over the same territory. The State of Ransomware Q2 2026 report from Check Point Research shows that picture starting to shift. The leaders are still winning, but the road to joining them has gotten a great deal shorter.
Key observed findings
- The ecosystem stayed concentrated even as its tail widened considerably. The top 10 groups accounted for 57.6% of all victims, down from 71% in Q1, while the number of active groups climbed from 71 to 93, a new high for the period tracked in this report.
- Victim volume held at an elevated baseline and did not meaningfully change QoQ.
All credited sources
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The State of Ransomware Q2 2026
For the past year, the ransomware conversation has centered on concentration: a handful of dominant RaaS operations controlling most of the damage, and a shrinking pool of active groups fighting over the same territory. The State of Ransomware Q2 2026 report from Check Point Research shows that picture starting to shift. The leaders are still winning, but the road to joining them has gotten a great deal shorter.
Key observed findings
- The ecosystem stayed concentrated even as its tail widened considerably. The top 10 groups accounted for 57.6% of all victims, down from 71% in Q1, while the number of active groups climbed from 71 to 93, a new high for the period tracked in this report.
- Victim volume held at an elevated baseline and did not meaningfully change QoQ. Data leak sites recorded 2,139 victims in Q2, essentially flat versus Q1 (up 0.8%) and up 33% year over year, keeping pace with the highs set through 2025.
- Qilin and The Gentlemen fought a close race for the top spot all quarter. Qilin remained the most prolific operator for a fourth straight quarter with 279 victims, though its count fell 17%, while The Gentlemen surged 62% to 269 victims and actually outpaced Qilin during the month of June.
- An internal leak gave an unprecedented look inside The Gentlemen’s operation. Chat logs and platform data exposed a core team of roughly nine operators supported by a broader affiliate base, along with confirmation that the group used AI coding assistants to build its ransomware management panel in about three days, genuine first party evidence of AI accelerating malicious tooling development.
- Ransom payment rates fell to a multi year low near 23%, continuing a six year decline from 85% in 2019.
The State of Ransomware Q2 2026
For the past year, the ransomware conversation has centered on concentration: a handful of dominant RaaS operations controlling most of the damage, and a shrinking pool of active groups fighting over the same territory. The State of Ransomware Q2 2026 report from Check Point Research shows that picture starting to shift. The leaders are still winning, but the road to joining them has gotten a great deal shorter.
Key observed findings
- The ecosystem stayed concentrated even as its tail widened considerably. The top 10 groups accounted for 57.6% of all victims, down from 71% in Q1, while the number of active groups climbed from 71 to 93, a new high for the period tracked in this report.
- Victim volume held at an elevated baseline and did not meaningfully change QoQ. Data leak sites recorded 2,139 victims in Q2, essentially flat versus Q1 (up 0.8%) and up 33% year over year, keeping pace with the highs set through 2025.
- Qilin and The Gentlemen fought a close race for the top spot all quarter. Qilin remained the most prolific operator for a fourth straight quarter with 279 victims, though its count fell 17%, while The Gentlemen surged 62% to 269 victims and actually outpaced Qilin during the month of June.
- An internal leak gave an unprecedented look inside The Gentlemen’s operation. Chat logs and platform data exposed a core team of roughly nine operators supported by a broader affiliate base, along with confirmation that the group used AI coding assistants to build its ransomware management panel in about three days, genuine first party evidence of AI accelerating malicious tooling development.