Free platform for all your favorite games—download Battle.net here.
Blizzard Entertainment has released its own social platform for players: Battle.net. With Battle.net, your Blizzard Entertainment games are always at your fingertips and up to date. It also includes social features like adding friends, chatting, seeing what your friends are playing, and jumping into games together.
Battle.net also features a news section focused on the most relevant updates—typically Blizzard Entertainment news such as upcoming tournaments and details about the latest patches. There’s also a built-in shop where you can purchase in-game items, add-ons, and more.
Battle.net is the perfect hub—as long as you play the supported titles, of course.
Download and get free games
Battle.net isn’t like Steam in the sense that it doesn’t offer a massive catalog. It primarily hosts games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. When you download Battle.net and create/log in to your account, several award-winning games are free to play. These include:
Hearthstone – the award-winning competitive card game with hours of entertainment.
Heroes of the Storm – Blizzard Entertainment’s own MOBA. Choose your hero and dive into fast-paced battles against other players, solo or with friends.
Most Blizzard Entertainment games also offer a trial period.
World of Warcraft – a world filled with monsters, magic, and conflict. You can download and play free up to level 20.
Anyone can join
Battle.net is required for most Blizzard Entertainment titles, but it never feels like a burden to have installed. Its features are intuitive and genuinely useful. After creating an account, choose a username—this is the easiest way for friends to find and add you.
Once you’ve added each other, you’ll appear in one another’s friends list. From there you can see what game your friends are playing, chat, and plan sessions together. You can also place voice calls and communicate via high-quality voice instead of text.
Stay up to date
The news feed in the Battle.net client keeps you informed about the latest and most relevant updates for you—for example, useful details about patches for each game. That way you’ll always be up to date on balance changes, new features, and design tweaks.
These news items typically focus on Blizzard Entertainment, so don’t expect coverage of non-Blizzard games—which makes perfect sense.
Settings
The Settings section is one of Battle.net’s most useful areas, and there’s plenty to explore—but here are two highlights.
Streaming – game streaming has never been more popular. With Battle.net, you can stream directly from the client to friends, coworkers, or family. Setup is simple and doesn’t require deep technical knowledge. Note that streaming can be demanding on your CPU and internet connection, so if performance drops, streaming may be the reason.
You can connect a microphone and headset to your stream. You can also link your Facebook profile so your livestream is broadcast directly to your friends.
Game settings – configure many options without launching the game first, such as language selection or resetting settings if a misconfiguration prevents the game from opening. Graphics options must be changed from within each game.
All your installed games automatically appear under Game Settings.
Similar software
While Battle.net is fairly unique, there are platforms with overlapping features. Because all Blizzard Entertainment games are tied to Battle.net, the platform has a clear advantage—you won’t find these titles in other launchers. The flip side is that you’re limited to Blizzard Entertainment games.
Steam – a must-have for PC gaming. At its core, Steam is a massive online store with nearly every major release available. It’s often the most affordable option, which is why so many players use it. Like Battle.net, Steam lets you add friends, chat, and play together.
Discord – the ideal companion app. Discord doesn’t offer games, but it’s the preferred communication tool for PC gamers. It’s blazing fast, free, and extremely user-friendly. Even though Battle.net and Steam include their own voice tools, Discord remains the go-to thanks to its crystal-clear audio quality.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Blizzard Entertainment built this application as a central hub for its players. If you love Blizzard Entertainment games as much as we do, Battle.net is absolutely worth having. That said, you’re limited to Blizzard Entertainment titles. The catalog has grown with Activision releases, but the platform is still dominated by Blizzard Entertainment games—which can be a pro or a con depending on your tastes.
We’re big fans of Blizzard Entertainment games, so we don’t mind that they have their own cozy spot on our desktop. If you love great fantasy and action games, Battle.net is a must-have for your PC.
Download Battle.net
