Play Original Starcraft Free, Here’s How

If you’d like to play the original Starcraft for free, you can do so easily. Technically the original Starcraft has been available to download, install, and play for free, for a while now, but the instructions on how to do it have changed. It’s not exactly advertised on the Blizzard site or BattleNet either, but once you learn how it works you’ll be downloading and playing Starcraft for free in no time at all.

How to Download & Play Starcraft for Free on Mac or PC

This works with macOS Sequoia, MacOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, and Windows PC’s. You will need to download and install the BattleNet client, and have a BattleNet login, and the rest is as simple as can be.

1. Go to Battle.net and download the desktop client for Mac or Windows PC
2. Launch the Battle Net app, then login to your Battle.net account (or create a new BattleNet ID if you do not have one yet)
3. Click on “Games” tab at the top, then use the side menu to select “All Games”
4. Locate “Starcraft” in the list and click on it (not Starcraft II, unless you want to play that instead but it is not free)



5. Click on “Install” to begin downloading and installing Starcraft on the Mac



6. Confirm that you want to install Starcraft in the /Applications directory



7. When Starcraft has finished downloading, go back to Battle.net and choose “Play”, or go to the /Applications folder and launch Starcraft directly
8. Starcraft will launch, and you’re able to play the entire game and entirely for free, even online

There you go, you’re now playing the original Starcraft entirely for free, on Mac or Windows PC!

Help, Starcraft is Stuck Open or Unresponsive and Won’t Quit

Some Mac users have noticed that quitting out of Starcraft may be a little buggy, at least in Sonoma, where sometimes exiting the game is not responsive, or the game itself may even freeze, so you may need to force quit out of the app when you’re done playing by pressing Command+Option+Q and selecting Starcraft and choosing Force Quit.

Is Starcraft really free to play?

Yes, the original Starcraft is free to download and free to play.

This was initially offered as a promotion for Starcraft Remastered back in 2017 and was once available directly to download from the Blizzard site, but now it’s tucked within BattleNet app and less obvious.

It’s obviously not particularly advertised on their main Starcraft website, but according to Blizzard / Activision, “StarCraft and Brood War are free to download on our website and do not require any DVD or activation code”, which is mentioned here on the BattleNet support site.

Note not all language versions of Starcraft are available as a free download, so if you want the free version for certain then choose the English version.