The order to play them in
There is no puzzle here, and no “publication order versus chronological order” problem: StarCraft was released in the order it happens. Play it that way. The only real decision is how far you want to go before the new game arrives.
| Campaign | What you play |
|---|---|
| StarCraft1998 · re-released as StarCraft: Remastered in 2017 | Three campaigns in sequence — Terran, Zerg, Protoss. The whole setting is established hereThis is the one to start with |
| StarCraft: Brood War1998 expansion · included with Remastered | Three more campaigns, continuing directly. Not optional in any story sense |
| StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty2010 | The Terran campaign, four years after Brood War. A different kind of game: a hub, a crew and mission choices |
| StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm2013 | The Zerg campaign, played from the other side |
| StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void2015 | The Protoss campaign, and the end of the trilogy |
| Nova Covert Ops2016 mission packs | A short Terran epilogue set after the trilogy. A postscript, not a chapter |
Check the official pages for what a current purchase actually includes and on which platforms, rather than trusting a years-old article — that part changes and we do not want to date it here. [A] [B]
The shape of it, without the endings
If you want orientation rather than events, this is the whole series in five sentences, and none of them spoils a campaign.
The original game opens with human space governed badly and at war with itself, and then two alien species arrive in it — one that consumes and adapts, one that has been watching and has decided how the problem should be solved. Brood War is the aftermath: everyone is weaker, the old orders have been broken, and outside powers see an opening. StarCraft II picks the story up four years later and follows it through three campaigns, one per species, each played from that species’ side. [A] [B] [C]
The trilogy ends by revealing that the three-way war had an author — and that the three species have a common enemy older than any of them. Then the series stops, and stays stopped for a long time.
That is the gap the announced game is on the far side of.
What happens: the original campaigns — contains spoilers
Collapsed on purpose.
A Confederate colony is overrun, and colonial marshal Jim Raynor joins Arcturus Mengsk’s rebellion against a government that is using the invasion as a weapon rather than fighting it. The rebellion wins by letting the Zerg reach the Confederate capital, Tarsonis; the Confederacy ends and Mengsk declares himself emperor of the Terran Dominion. Raynor walks out. Sarah Kerrigan, the rebellion’s psionic operative, is deliberately left behind and taken by the Swarm.
The Zerg campaign follows the Overmind’s purpose to the Protoss homeworld. The Protoss campaign is about a civilisation whose rulers cannot admit what is happening: Aiur falls, and the Overmind is destroyed there by a Templar commander, Tassadar, acting with the Dark Templar his own government had outlawed. The survivors evacuate to Shakuras. [A] [C]
What happens: Brood War — contains spoilers
Collapsed on purpose.
Three threads, all about who fills a vacuum. The Protoss on Shakuras have to make their exile permanent and choose new leadership. Earth finally notices the sector and sends the United Earth Directorate to take it, which briefly works. And the leaderless Swarm gets a new ruler: Kerrigan, who ends the expansion in control of the Zerg and having outmanoeuvred every other party in it, including the people who thought they were using her. [A] [C]
What happens: the StarCraft II trilogy — contains spoilers
Collapsed on purpose.
Wings of Liberty. Raynor runs an insurgency against Mengsk’s Dominion from a battlecruiser, the Hyperion, while chasing alien artefacts that might undo what was done to Kerrigan. Mengsk’s son Valerian turns out to be a more complicated figure than his father. The artefact works, partially.
Heart of the Swarm. Played as Kerrigan, rebuilding the Swarm with revenge on Mengsk as the organising purpose. She gets it.
Legacy of the Void. Played as Artanis, retaking Aiur — and discovering that the Khala itself is the enemy’s route in. Amon, a fallen member of the ancient species that engineered both the Protoss and the Zerg, has been the author of the three-way war from the start. The Protoss sever their nerve cords to escape him, and the three species fight the last war of the series together. [B] [C]
Where the announced game sits
This part is confirmed rather than inferred, and it is short. STARCRAFT was revealed at the BlizzCon opening ceremony on 12 September 2026, with a spring 2030 release window, and it is set roughly 70 years after the events of Legacy of the Void. All three species appear. [D] [E]
Seventy years is the most useful number in this whole article, because of what it does to everything above it. It is long enough that the governments, alliances and personal grudges the trilogy ended on need not still exist in any recognisable form — and the developers have said plainly that the gap is what makes room for new characters and changed relationships. [D]
So the practical way to use this timeline: read it for who these species are and what kind of war they fought, not as a table of contents for the new game. A returning player’s knowledge of the fiction transfers. A returning player’s assumptions about the map do not.
Our sourced overview of the announcement keeps the confirmed facts separate from developer intent, and is updated when something actually changes.
Change history
- First published version. Written because the reading route recommended a timeline that did not exist. The playing order and the release years are spoiler-free; each era’s events are in a collapsed section so the page can be used to plan a first playthrough.
Read and released by a named editor before publication. This page describes the released games of the series. Where it touches the announced game, the statement it rests on is attributed and dated; nothing here is an account of firsthand play of the unreleased game.