Planning ahead for your Battle.net game library
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. game library cannot be transferred and have no beneficiary option — here is what you can do while the account is active
Blizzard Support
Blizzard Support (deceased-relative account claim / account holder name update)
Under Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.'s policy, game library have no value after death. Every strategy for preserving Battle.net game library depends on steps taken while the account holder is alive.
How to protect your Battle.net game library
7 steps for managing your Battle.net game library during your lifetime:
Family sharing
Blizzard does not offer a family-pooling or account-sharing program for Battle.net, and the EULA prohibits gifting, selling, or trading an account. Blizzard's own support articles are unusually explicit about the absence of any workaround: "Combine Battle.net Accounts" states "You cannot merge multiple Battle.net accounts, merge multiple copies of a game into a single game account, or move games from one Battle.net account to another. Customer Support will not assist with bypassing these restrictions"; "Account Transfer to Friend" states "We don't recognize the transfer of accounts between individuals"; and "Can I Sell My Account?" states "Only the original owner of an account will be recognized as the account's owner. It is not possible to transfer an account to a different player." So there is no way to relocate a game library onto a survivor's existing account -- the only route to the library is a claim on the account itself. Characters cannot be moved between Battle.net accounts either, although World of Warcraft character transfers can be purchased between WoW accounts sitting under the SAME Battle.net account. The one genuine transfer right in the EULA is for games bought from a retailer on original media, which may be permanently transferred by physically handing over the disc, packaging, and documentation. There is no mechanism to designate a successor or to share account ownership.
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Frequently asked questions
Record the email on your account and which games are tied to it so your executor knows the library exists, but understand the account cannot be inherited or transferred. Spend down any Battle.net Balance, since prepaid funds are non-transferable and generally non-refundable. Cancel or document recurring subscriptions so they can be stopped, and save any game data or screenshots you want preserved separately. Keep any retail boxed games with their packaging, since those can legitimately be handed on. Do not plan around sharing your password, because account sharing violates Blizzard's terms; instead point your executor to Blizzard Support's deceased-relative process.
No. Sharing your account credentials so someone can log in as you violates Blizzard's End User License Agreement, which limits the license to you personally and prohibits transfer of the account. Rather than leaving a password, document that the account exists, note the email it uses and the games tied to it, and direct your executor to Blizzard Support's deceased-account-holder process at us.support.blizzard.com/en/help/article/153121, plus the no-login ticket route at us.support.blizzard.com/en/help/article/43885, if anything on the account matters to the family.
Listing the Battle.net account in an estate inventory identifies it for a fiduciary, who works through the operator's official channels to manage or close it.
Battle.net does not support beneficiary designations. Unlike financial accounts, there is no way to name a beneficiary on this type of account.
Sources
Data sourced from Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. primary sources (12 pages reviewed). How we research.
Blizzard Support
Blizzard Support (deceased-relative account claim / account holder name update)
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