MPQ file: How to open? The best software for opening mpq files

MPQ

Blizzard Entertainment game archive

File type: Game file, Archive and compressed file

An mpq file extension is used for game resource archives in games created by Blizzard Entertainment, such as Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III or World of Warcraft.

What is mpq file?

File type category:
Game file
Archive and compressed file

Date updated: July 20, 2022

The mpq file extension is used for mpq archives used by many games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, like Starcraft and Diablo. MPQ (Mo'PaQ) is short for Mike O'Brien Pack.

The mpq files are used exclusively in Blizzard's games and contain various game resource data (including graphics, sounds, and level data). The format's capabilities include compression, encryption, file segmentation, extensible file metadata, cryptographic signature and the ability to store multiple versions of the same file for internationalization and platform-specific differences.

MPQ archives can use a variety of compression algorithms which may also be combined.

Supported compression algorithms:

PKZIP
Huffman
bzip2
LZMA

In some Blizzard video games, for example Warcraft III, in-game cinematics are using *.mpq file extension, but there aren't archived with MPQ format. There are stored in AVI video format encoded by DivX video codec. Only .avi extension is renamed to .mpq.

How to open mpq file?

You can view contents of *.mpq files with MPQ Editor and some other similar software programs.

How to convert mpq file?

You can extract contents with a few mpq tools. See suggested apps. Simple conversion does not make sense and is not possible.

Suggested software to open mpq file:

Associated software actions with the mpq file

Open

Software applications that can open mpq files:

MPQ Editor (Microsoft Windows)

MPQ Extractor (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

MPQKit (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

mpq-tools (Linux/Unix)

StormLibrary (Multiplatform)

Extract

Software apps that extract mpq files:

MPQ Editor (Microsoft Windows)

MPQ Extractor (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

MPQKit (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)

mpq-tools (Linux/Unix)

StormLibrary (Multiplatform)

Other actions

Software applications that handle other tasks involving mpq files:

StarCraft II (Microsoft Windows)

Diablo III (Microsoft Windows)

Diablo II (Microsoft Windows)

Diablo (Microsoft Windows)

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (Microsoft Windows)

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Microsoft Windows)

Starcraft (Multiplatform)

World of Warcraft (Multiplatform)