World of Warcraft. Diablo. Call of Duty. You probably recognize these hit franchises, and all of them come from Activision Blizzard - a company composed of the Activision, Blizzard, and King game studios. This impressive portfolio of household names on PC and console eventually led to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2022 for a deal valued at $68.7 billion.
One of the major drivers of Blizzard’s success is their proprietary game launcher app, Battle.net. With the launcher, Activision Blizzard goes beyond a platform for distributing their games - they give players deeper ways to engage with their favorite IPs so they keep returning and choosing the D2C channel over a third-party platform. Battle.net offers players the following benefits:
- Exclusive access to their most popular IPs
- Social features that make it easy to connect with other players and foster community
- Branded experiences that deepen engagement with their favorite titles beyond gameplay
- A convenient way to install their favorite games, make in-app purchases, and get exclusive rewards - all in one place
All of these Battle.net features helped PC revenue reach $594 million in Q2 2023 - 27% of overall revenue - and sustain a close-knit community that played over 8.3 billion hours across Blizzard’s titles in 2024.
Ahead, we’re deconstructing the Battle.net game launcher app to explore the key features it offers to users so that they continue to choose this D2C channel for playing, instead of a third-party platform like Steam. If you’re thinking about building your own PC game launcher app for your desktop game or going cross platform, this deconstruction of Battle.net is a great place to start for inspiration and ideas from one of the best examples in the gaming industry.
“At the end of the day, we felt if we could create a fun and easy way for people to play our games, they would keep coming back for more – fortunately they have.” - Paul W. Sams, former President of Blizzard Entertainment SA
Why did Blizzard create the Battle.net game launcher app?
By the end of 1995, Blizzard had launched two of its most popular franchises: World of Warcraft and Warcraft 2 on PC. Next, the Blizzard team wanted to take their games online to encourage multiplayer modes and community-building.
“How cool would it be if we could create a network that was deeply integrated with our products such that people could connect up, play, it would be one click of a button, and they'd be online, able to communicate, chat, play with their friends?” - Rob Bridenbecker, VP at Blizzard, Technology Strategy & Planning
As Blizzard developed their next game, Diablo, the team simultaneously built Battle.net as a PC game launcher app that enabled users to play against each other. They launched Battle.net in January 1997, with Diablo as the debut title on the launcher.
By November 1997, Diablo on Battle.net (at the time, it was the only game available on the game launcher app) had over 1.25 million unique players, and on average, 3,500 new unique users daily. What’s even more impressive about this statistic is that Battle.net functioned via a P2P network at this time - it didn’t even have a dedicated server.
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Initially, Blizzard let users access their games, including WoW and Diablo, by licensing software from other networks. However, the success of Diablo proved that Battle.net could scale and provide the features the studio wanted without the need for licensing from a third-party - which also let them maintain full creative control. So Blizzard decided to keep building out their own launcher as the exclusive place for users to play their games.
“It was a combination of us wanting control of our own online game experience, and the fact that Battle.net was the winner in our mind in the battle of the game networks that helped us decide to focus our efforts on Battle.net only.” - Paul W. Sams, former President of Blizzard Entertainment SA
Even in this first iteration in 1997, Battle.net was distinct for its simplicity. The games themselves were P2P so all they needed to do was offer players chat capabilities, show accurate game listings, and enable matchmaking. With the release of Diablo 2 in 2000, the game launcher app moved to hosting on servers instead.
By 2009, Blizzard announced the new “Battle.net 2.0” update, and the launcher began to resemble what we see today - emphasizing more social and community features. Now let’s dig in further into these features to understand how Battle.net grew from just over 1 million unique players to 12 million playing World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Creating community through social gaming
Battle.net was built to allow users from across the world to play the studio’s titles together online. As it expanded with new social features and capabilities, the game launcher app became more than just a way to play games across Activision Blizzard’s portfolio. Unlike third-party platforms like Steam where players just play the game then leave, Blizzard.net became a space for players to chat and engage with others beyond gameplay itself. It’s why many players leave the launcher open all day. Let’s look more closely at the primary social functionalities of the launcher that foster this type of emotional attachment.
“No one uses Steam to chat with their friends - that’s why Discord came out. Using Battle.net is an emotional thing. I know so many players that have the launcher running every single day.” - Meit Shah, former Lead Product Manager, Ecommerce, at Blizzard Entertainment
Cross-game chat
Blizzard closely integrates the backend of the game launcher with their games. As a result, players can create just one account that syncs their chats, friends list, etc. across Activision Blizzard’s games and Battle.net.
Here’s how it works: during game development, Blizzard has a dedicated team for the online experience on Battle.net and a different team dedicated to the game itself. They work together closely during the development process to ensure the game and the online gaming network are “completely and totally integrated.” For players, this results in a smooth and convenient experience when they want to chat or voice chat with friends - even while playing different Activision Blizzard games. It also enables cross platform play with friends on other devices and cross-progression so players can pick up where they left off on any platform, whether using the Battle.net Android game launcher app, Xbox, or PC. Compare this with Steam, which requires players to create a separate Steam account, along with an account for each game they want to play.
“There's a lot more to Battle.net than most launchers. For one, it's really deeply integrated into every Blizzard game's chat and friends system. At present players in WoW and say Heroes of the Storm can chat with each other inside the games.” - Hacker News user ocdtrekkie on a YCombinator forum
Players can even see the games their friends are playing in real-time on the launcher - so they can hop in to start playing together and chat through strategies. Since Battle.net is also available as an iOS and Android game launcher app, players can easily continue socializing on the go. The convenience and additional features within the chat system have made it an incredibly popular feature on the launcher. In fact, players sent 379 million messages on Battle.net in 2024.
Connect to other community platforms
Battle.net lets players connect their other accounts to the launcher, like Discord, Twitch, and YouTube. These social platforms help foster a close-knit community of players that do everything from streaming their own gameplay to participating in lore discussions. For example, Overwatch 2 has over 21.5 million followers on Twitch and over 570,000 members on Discord.
It’s often the case that users share their unique Battle.net player ID, BattleTag, on these platforms so they can discover and connect with new friends. Like on Discord, where players share their BattleTag in their profiles so the game launcher shows up as a connected app with their other usernames when their profiles are expanded.
“It’s so easy to link my profile to other social networks to find new acquaintances and create connections with other people. Whoever has a Twitch or Discord account can see my Battle.net profile which helps me find new friends.” - Battle.net user, Carnifax#22141
Connecting to these platforms has the additional benefit of letting players earn free rewards. For example, World of Warcraft ran a Twitch Drop campaign that rewarded players with a new pet, Beetriz, for watching 4 hours of any eligible stream on their Twitch channel. The catch was: players needed to connect their Battle.net and Twitch accounts to receive and redeem the rewards. So not only did the campaign encourage players to utilize the content features of the game launcher app (e.g. News & Updates section), but it also incentivized engagement on channels like Twitch. Giving players a good reason to visit these platforms helps deepen player loyalty to the game and foster a sense of community.
Note: the Twitch drop campaign was also announced directly inside Battle.net in the News & Updates section, which took players to a dedicated page without ever leaving the game launcher app. We’ll dive deeper into how the launcher is also used as a space for expanding the game universe and advertising other offers later.
Expanding the Activision Blizzard brand universe
The Battle.net launcher gives players ways to deepen their engagement with the Activision Blizzard universe beyond gameplay itself. These different features boost both loyalty and retention.
Fully branded experience
The Battle.net brand is synonymous with Blizzard thanks to the launcher’s long history and standout IPs that can only be played on the PC game launcher app. Just the Battle.net logo is immediately recognizable to millions thanks to hits like World of Warcraft and Diablo.
Nothing proves this better than when Blizzard tried dropping the Battle.net name in 2016 and renaming it as a Blizzard entity. There was so much backlash from their players due to the strong Battle.net brand identity and community that Blizzard decided to scrap the idea in 2017 and keep the game launcher app named as-is
“We understood that Battle.net stood for something special—it represents years of shared history and enjoyment, community and friendship, for all of us and our players.” - Blizzard Entertainment in an August 2017 update
Activision Blizzard’s in-depth branding strategy extends beyond the launcher, too. For example, they have apparel and merchandise shops for their major IPs, like the WoW merch website and Call of Duty shop. Each game also has its own website with features that extend the game universe - think the Overwatch 2 Heroes page or Hearthstone Deck Builder. These features give players additional ways to engage with their favorite games and deepen their loyalty, while also strengthening the brand identity of each IP.
The Battle.net launcher is another way for Activision Blizzard to engage players through a branded channel. And the design of the game launcher app mirrors the game websites to create a cohesive and immersive experience for players across all platforms. The text and logos from the game websites, for example, are identical to the launcher.
Beyond design, actual content from the game websites is brought directly into the launcher, too. Like the News & Updates feature, which takes the blog posts and articles from each website and puts them all in this one section in Battle.net (more on this later). So a Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 blog post from the CoD website all about the new features and events in Season 03 gets shown in the launcher, alongside content from other games in the Activision Blizzard portfolio.
Compare this to the user experience on Steam, where the few Activision Blizzard titles that are available there need to conform to the Steam UX/UI. Like the Diablo IV downloadable content (DLC) page. On Steam, the DLC section needs to follow the platform’s template - which doesn’t show all of the available editions or features. On Battle.net, though, the Diablo IV DLC section can use a design that elaborates on and compares the different products in a simple and engaging way, which also encourages higher conversions.
And on Steam, Activision Blizzard needs to compete with other games - even showing recommended games from other studios at the bottom of the product page. But on the Battle.net game launcher app, only the company’s portfolio is shown, which reinforces the Activision Blizzard brand identity and keeps players immersed in the IP universe. Without this branded experience, Steam becomes a place only for players to launch the game. But on Battle.net, players feel encouraged and motivated to explore both additional game content (like DLC) and features outside of gameplay.
Additional content
Another way Battle.net deepens player engagement with the Activision Blizzard IP universe is through the News & Updates section in the game launcher app, which we mentioned earlier. In this content section, players can get the latest information about their favorite games in one place - from patch notes and upcoming in-game events and item drops to notes directly from the Activision Blizzard team.
The Director’s Take for Overwatch 2 is a great example of the type of content included here. It’s an article series written by Aaron Keller, the Game Director for Overwatch 2, that gives users behind-the-scenes insights and directly addresses player feedback. These articles feel like a direct line to the game’s development team, which gives players a feeling of empowerment and loyalty. And these articles live directly in Blizzard.net so players can easily access them without needing to leave the game launcher app.
The news section is also an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to pique player interest about other games in their portfolio and highlight upcoming events. Like when Blizzard posted about Blizzcon 2026 - players could easily learn about the event and get access to tickets without having to leave Battle.net and head to the Blizzard website.
Promote entire portfolio
The Activision Blizzard portfolio spans over 36 IPs - and that was before Microsoft’s 2022 acquisition. Now, popular games like Xbox Entertainment’s Avowed are also available on the PC game launcher app.
With so many titles currently and even more coming down the pipeline (both entirely new games along with expansions and additional content for existing ones), Battle.net becomes the perfect platform for advertising Activision Blizzard’s extensive portfolio and motivating players to try different titles.
There are a few ways the studio encourages players to try other titles on the game launcher app:
Free gameplay trials: Players can test out a game with the free trial feature on Battle.net. This is one of the most effective cross-promo tools because it lets users try a game before they buy, giving them a real taste of gameplay and convincing them to purchase.
“I appreciate the new game feature or new release suggestions in the launcher because it gives me the ability to preview game content such as gameplay, game mechanics, or graphics. I’ve definitely made purchases after seeing game content that interested me.” - Battle.net user, Carnifex#22141
Homepage highlight: The moment players sign into the game launcher app, they’re greeted with a large, rotating banner image showing the latest DLC, events, pre-purchases, etc. across different games. This carousel is a way to get in front of players and highlight the most important updates front-and-center - then drive players to that game with a CTA directly in the banner.
Personalized recommendations: In the Recommended section below the carousel on the homepage, players get personalized recommendations of other titles they’re likely to be interested in. These are based on both their own user behavior/purchase history and what’s popular overall with Battle.net players. For example, if a player purchased Warcraft III, they’re likely to see recommendations for additional Warcraft III content and other games in the Warcraft IP universe.
Features from across IPs: The Featured Games section isn’t personalized, but it is a more engaging way to highlight titles from across the Activision Blizzard universe. For example, here games include a short blurb and a video snippet that grabs the attention of users and entices them to click through to the Shop to learn more.
Increasing revenue through incentives and features
Giving players a better experience in the Battle.net launcher than what they can get through a third-party platform can also encourage higher spend. There are a few ways Activision Blizzard motivates players to spend more on the game launcher app:
Shop feature
A third-party platform like Steam doesn’t allow players to make any in-game purchases. Battle.net solves this pain point with a Shop section integrated directly into the launcher that offers both in-game and DLC in one place - and goes a step further by including the merch shop for each game, too. In the Shop, players can do everything from buying new games, getting expansion packs, and purchasing in-game power-ups to grabbing a branded T-shirt. And they can only do this because of how closely Activision Blizzard integrates their titles with the game launcher app - third-party platforms can’t support this feature.
Making the Shop a more convenient place for users to purchase their favorite items and browse other offers leads to higher revenue. There’s an additional capability of the Shop worth mentioning here: players can purchase new games using currency from other Blizzard games. The big example of this is World of Warcraft tokens. Players can purchase these tokens from the WoW Auction House using gold they earn in-game - then redeem them for $15 each in Battle.net balance. Using this balance, players can purchase pretty much anything from the Shop, including new games. And they earn gold by playing World of Warcraft, which is a good reason for them to keep engaging.
“I fly around and do world quests, rares, and events. One toon can easily make 20-40k a week just doing what I am already doing anyways. With a max level toon of every class, I can easily make 200k in a week of just playing how I enjoy the game. Once I get max level for all toons I could pretty easily farm a token from one set of world quest resets.” - Reddit user, ba_cam
This ability to exchange in-game currency for Battle.net credits was highlighted with Avowed. The game debuted on the launcher for $69.99, which meant players with 5 WoW tokens could purchase it using Battle.net balance. While only the savviest players had enough gold for this number of tokens, it’s a great incentive that’s exclusive to the game launcher app: only here can players purchase items from the Shop using currency they earned in another Activision Blizzard title.
Exclusive rewards with purchase
When players pre-purchase a game on Battle.net, they can get exclusive rewards, like in-game cosmetics, early access, and branded content (e.g. real-world collectibles or a digital art book). This not only builds hype and helps the game launch with a substantial user base, but also is a major revenue driver. And since Battle.net is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) game launcher app, this revenue is free from the 30% commission fees that third-party platforms like Steam take.
Each game release includes a branded mix of bonuses meant to feel valuable to players without giving them an unfair advantage - avoiding a “pay-to-win” scenario is key, which is why most Battle.net bonuses are cosmetic (e.g. skins, digital media, real-world items).
For example, when the Dragonflight expansion pack for World of Warcraft was available for pre-order on Battle.net, players could choose from 4 different editions: Base, Heroic, Epic, and Collector’s. Each edition came with its own pre-order bonuses, exclusively available on the launcher, that ranged from an additional pet to an entire set of real-world collectible items, like a mousepad and set of 5 pins. These rewards felt valuable to players, motivating them to choose to pre-order on Battle.net instead of waiting to download from a third party. It also encouraged them to spend more because the higher-value editions came with bigger rewards.
“I want the physical collectors edition, so I'll be preordering as I have done with every Blizzard game/expansion (aside from BfA) since the MoP announcement. I know how hard it is to get hold of CE games after launch, and I don't want to take the risk of missing out.” - Reddit user, Draiel
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Do I need a game launcher app?
Activision Blizzard is a leading example of what a company can accomplish when they invest in a D2C channel like a game launcher. Yes, their recognizable IPs were a big help in kicking things off with a bang so they could distribute their games exclusively through Battle.net (take note if you also are an IP-based game!). But beyond that, they built value for their players in each part of their game launcher app - from the cross-game chat capability to Shop feature - so users would choose the D2C channel over a third party platform like Steam.
If you want to create a custom launcher with features beyond gameplaythat speak to your unique player motivations so they choose to engage with it again and again, talk to us at Stash. We’ve helped top game studios build game launchers that drive direct revenue, deepen player engagement, and boost retention into the long-term.
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