MPQ (Blizzard) file format

.mpq · archive (game-specific) · introduced 1996 by Mike O'Brien (Blizzard)

What is a MPQ (Blizzard) file?

MPQ ("Mo'PaQ", short for Mike O'Brien Pack) is the archive format used by classic Blizzard games — Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft, and World of Warcraft up to Warlords of Draenor. It supports per-file compression, encryption, and patch chains. Blizzard moved newer games to the CASC format.

Most readers reach this page after double-clicking a .mpq file and finding their operating system unsure what to do with it. The good news: MPQ (Blizzard) is a well-understood format with mature tooling on every major platform. It is supported in one click by mainstream archivers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

How to extract a MPQ (Blizzard) file

Opening a .mpq file is straightforward on every modern operating system. The exact steps depend on which platform you are on:

On Windows

Locate the .mpq file in File Explorer.
Right-click the file. If you have 7-Zip installed, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here. On Windows 11 the built-in extractor handles ZIP, 7z, RAR and several other formats directly through Extract All…
If prompted, pick a destination folder and click Extract.
The extracted files appear in a folder next to the original archive.

On macOS

Find the .mpq file in Finder.
Install The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka for both creating and extracting.
Right-click the file → Open With → The Unarchiver (or just double-click after Unarchiver is set as the default).
The extracted folder appears next to the archive.

On Linux

Use your file manager: right-click the archive → Extract Here (file-roller on GNOME, Ark on KDE).

On the command line, run one of:

7z x archive.mpq    # works for almost any format

The files appear in the current directory.

How to create a MPQ (Blizzard) file

To pack files into a .mpq archive, you typically need an archiver that supports writing this format. Not every tool can create every format — for example, only WinRAR can create real RAR files. The sidebar lists the software known to read and write MPQ (Blizzard).

On the command line, the canonical create command is:

# Use 7-Zip, PeaZip, or the format's reference tool to create .mpq files.

If you regularly create archives at scale, a dedicated archive automation suite can wrap this command in scheduled jobs, integrity checks, and offsite replication.

Strengths

Engine-tuned for fast random access
Patch-chain support

Weaknesses and limitations

Proprietary
Replaced by CASC in modern Blizzard titles

Typical use cases

Classic Blizzard game data
Mod distribution for those games

Technical details

MPQ (Blizzard) uses the PKWARE / Huffman / ADPCM algorithm and is identified on disk by the magic byte sequence 4D 50 51 1A. The standard MIME type is application/octet-stream. The format is a proprietary specification and is subject to license restrictions for some uses (notably creation).

Frequently asked questions

Is MPQ (Blizzard) safe to open?

Archive files are containers — they are only as safe as what they contain. A .mpq from a trusted source is fine; one received from a stranger can hold malicious executables, scripts, or files engineered to exploit bugs in your archiver. Always keep your archiver updated, and never run unknown executables that come out of an archive. A safe workflow is to extract into a sandbox and scan the contents before opening anything.

What is the maximum file size?

Modern implementations support archives in the multi-terabyte range. The practical limit is your filesystem (FAT32 caps at 4 GB; ext4, NTFS, APFS, and exFAT all comfortably handle multi-TB files).

Can I password-protect a MPQ (Blizzard)?

Some archivers can wrap MPQ (Blizzard) files in an encrypted container, but the format itself does not always include built-in encryption. Check your archiver's documentation.

How does MPQ (Blizzard) compare to other formats?

See our format comparison pages such as ZIP vs 7z, ZIP vs RAR, and tar.gz vs tar.xz for side-by-side feature tables.