StarCraft is a sci-fi RTS game developed by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was released in North America on March 31, 1998. An expansion, Brood War, was released in North America in December 1998.

StarCraft's multiplayer component became popular in the Philippines in the early 2000s when RTS games were still in demand. It became one of the most installed games in internet cafés during that time.

A sequel to the game, StarCraft II, was released in 2010. However, it did not achieve the same popularity as its predecessor in the Philippines.

StarCraft: Brood War was one of the Philippines' most popular PC games in the late 90s and early 2000s. One reason was its low system requirements and another was that its pirated equivalent, a cracked version that removes the game's cinematics, allowed the entire game to be copied into USB flash drives. Both reasons permitted the game to be easily installed into most low-end computer setups, including school computers.

StarCraft: Brood War had a light competitive scene during its peak in the Philippines. From 2002 until 2007, the Philippines sent representatives to compete in the World Cyber Games. In 2008, the game was finally removed from World Cyber Games Philippine preliminaries due to the low number of local participants.

StarCraft spawned the term "comsat", which refers to the act of peeking at an opponent's monitor during a multiplayer match.