Is Diablo 4 on Steam?
Yes, it is! Initially Diablo 4 was only available to buy on PC through Blizzard's own Battle.net client, but from October 17, 2023, it was also added to Steam. However, you can't transfer your license, so if you already bought it from Blizzard, you would have to buy another copy to play it on Steam.
It's happening: Diablo 4 is available on Steam
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Steam is the largest and most popular game distribution platform on Windows PC by a very wide margin, and in general, nearly every new PC game is available on it at launch. Because of this, many were no doubt be surprised to learn that this wasn't the case for Diablo 4, one of 2023's biggest releases.
The reason why this was the case is that Diablo 4, like the vast majority of Activision Blizzard's other titles, was planned to be offered exclusively to users of the company's Battle.net client. However, in a change of heart that caught pretty much everyone in the PC gaming community off-guard, Blizzard announced that Diablo 4 was coming to Steam on Oct. 17, 2023.
While certainly a huge surprise, it was never deemed impossible that this could happen. After all, Activision Blizzard released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) on Steam last year, after five full years of Call of Duty Battle.net exclusivity. Overwatch 2 was also brought to Valve's platform a few months back on Aug. 10 — before that, the popular hero shooter had been restricted to Battle.net since 2016. With major launches like these in the rearview, many thought it was inevitable that Diablo, too, would come to Steam. As it turns out, they were right on the mark.
The Steam variant of Diablo 4 supports full cross-play and cross-progression with the Xbox, PlayStation, and Battle.net versions of the game, though you'll still need to make a Battle.net account to play if you don't have one already. By requiring one of these accounts for all players regardless of their chosen platform, Blizzard is able to ensure that everyone can play together, and that progression is shared across platforms without issue.
No Diablo 4 license transfer to Steam from Battle.net
For gamers who want to play Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck, the fact you can now just buy the game from Steam makes it super easy. The issue is that if you already bought it on Battle.net, you can't transfer your license. At least not right now, and the chances are high it'll never happen. Valve wants its cut, which is fair, and it's unlikely Blizzard will be offering Steam codes as a replacement for its own store.
You can still play the Battle.net version on the Steam Deck, it just requires a little more effort to get installed. We wouldn't recommend buying another copy of the same game just to have it in a different launcher. You still get to play with your friends without having the Steam version. But if you were holding off because you wanted it on Steam, now is your time.
Diablo 4 is out now and is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PC, PS5, and PS4. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and we've been having an absolute blast with it since launch.
