Not every ban is forever. Game bans come in tiers, and knowing which tier you are facing tells you whether to wait it out or take it seriously.
Temporary bans
The mildest tier. Temporary bans last hours or days and are common for things like leaving matches early, idling, or minor conduct issues. They expire on their own — no appeal needed — and exist mainly to discourage a behaviour rather than to punish severely.
Escalating bans
Many systems escalate. A first offence might cost a few hours; a second, a day; a third, a week. Each repeat raises the penalty, and a long enough chain often ends in a permanent ban. This tier is designed so persistent offenders eventually run out of road.
Permanent bans
The top tier. Confirmed cheating, account fraud and serious abuse usually draw a permanent ban. These do not expire. An account ban of this kind is final unless an appeal overturns it, and anti-cheat detections almost always land here rather than in the temporary tiers.
Hardware bans never "expire"
A hardware ban is a special case. It is not a timer on an account — it is the publisher recording your machine's identifiers. There is no duration to wait out: the ban persists as long as the hardware presents the same fingerprint. That is what makes hardware bans categorically different from any temporary ban.
The takeaway
Ask which tier you are in. A temporary or escalating ban is a clock you can wait out. A permanent account ban needs an appeal. A hardware ban has no clock at all — it is tied to the machine, not the calendar.