Recent testing revealed that Arch Linux, Pop!_OS, and even Nobara Linux, which is maintained by a single developer, all outstripped Windows for the performance crown on Windows-native games. The testing was run at the high-end of quality settings, and Valve's Proton was used to run Windows games on Linux.
Anticheat isn’t malware. Malware has adverse effects on your system.
AC uses some techniques that some forms of malware also use (but far from all)
Malware defined as any software that does not benefit the user but wastes systems resources would fit here.
I don’t think that is a widely accepted holistic definition of malware. But even if, AC is not waisting resources. It’s taking the resources it needs to perform its job.
Anticheat benefits the users by…reducing the number of cheaters in games. Big concept to wrap your head around, I know.
There are several forms of anticheat. The ones that just run when the game is running, is usually fine. However, there is the Riot anti cheat which just runs all the time and isn’t uninstalled when Valorant is uninstalled. That is malware.
what about single player games? how does that anticheat benefit any user?
Are there single player games with anticheat?
I know that Resident Evil games come with Denuvo, for example.
DRM isn’t anti cheat.
in the denuvo product page it is called anticheat by their creators
https://irdeto.com/denuvo/anti-cheat/
You’ve linked to their anti cheat which they also offer but it’s not their main product. Funny that you missed that, given that you were already on their web site and https://irdeto.com/denuvo/ spells out “Anti-Piracy technology” in huge font:
There are games with single player and multiplayer modes that come with anti cheat. I had some game a few months ago that was a Steam freebie (can’t remember the name) whose anti cheat didn’t install properly on Windows and it didn’t allow me to launch regular single player, only mod mode.