Battle.net
Ranked 4 of 8 game launchers by recommenders
Blizzard's free launcher for its games, liked for running well alongside Steam and Proton, though several people found setup on Linux and Wine fiddly.
Blizzard's free launcher for its games, liked for running well alongside Steam and Proton, though several people found setup on Linux and Wine fiddly.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs well alongside Steam
“They also have the best integration, once your steam account is linked to your Battle.NET account you don't have to even think about the launcher”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts” “You can install battlenet under Steam and use all the proton magic to make it work.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March” “I added the battle.net installer as a non steam game in steam and it just worked.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” - Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Diablo 4 on Ubuntu?”
Installs and runs without issues
“to which I was able to get Battle.net to install and work correctly without issues”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Framework Sponsors CachyOS” “they're all in a single Wine Battle.net install”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” “for some reason that did work”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” Feels snappier than Steam
“it feels so much more snappy compared to Steam”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “Valve P2P networking broken for more than 2 months” “B.net just feels decently snappy”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to set up, needs workarounds
“tried installing Battle.net and just ran into too many issues and haven't come back yet”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” “the best/only way I could get it to work is by following some random forum post”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Ubisoft's FOR HONOR will block SteamOS / Linux players starting September 10” “battlenet is a bit annoying to set up”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” Updates can break or stall it
“Battle.net client has the same bug as Apple Silicon where it consistently needs to run a game "update" after closing the game.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Native vs. emulation: World of Warcraft game performance on Snapdragon X Elite” “at some point a Battle.net update broke the launcher under Wine some time last year”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features”
Other game launchers people recommend
The four most recommended other game launchers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroic Games Launcher | 50 | 9 | 85% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Lutris | 33 | 12 | 73% | 8 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| GOG Galaxy | 18 | 24 | 43% | 5 | — | — |
| Battle.netThis page | 12 | 8 | 60% | 7 | — | — |
| Steam Big Picture | 8 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
20 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I installed Battle.net launcher in Steam, the .exe file.”
“before Battle.net installer crapware”
“the best/only way I could get it to work is by following some random forum post”
“it feels so much more snappy compared to Steam”
“it’s hard to overstate what battle.net communities did for my psychology and confidence”
“battlenet is a bit annoying to set up”
“at some point a Battle.net update broke the launcher under Wine some time last year”
“You can install battlenet under Steam and use all the proton magic to make it work.”
“Unnecessary, if you ask me, but ok.”
“for some reason that did work”
“they're all in a single Wine Battle.net install”
“Battle.net client has the same bug as Apple Silicon where it consistently needs to run a game "update" after closing the game.”
“I had to play on Zone (and then Battle.net when Battle.net edition came out)”
“I still quit after they "patched" bloodlust years later in Battle.net.”
“to which I was able to get Battle.net to install and work correctly without issues”
“They also have the best integration, once your steam account is linked to your Battle.NET account you don't have to even think about the launcher”
“Battle.net's forums used to use XSLT and be a buggy mess”
“B.net just feels decently snappy”
“I added the battle.net installer as a non steam game in steam and it just worked.”
“tried installing Battle.net and just ran into too many issues and haven't come back yet”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.