Is Boosting Legal? Terms of Service vs the Law Explained

Is it illegal to buy a game boost?

Not in most countries. Outside South Korea, there's no widely known law that makes buying a boost a crime, and the question is almost always about the game's rules rather than the law.

Wikipedia's overview of boosting describes it as legal everywhere except South Korea. Laws do change, though, so if your country has strict rules on online services or gaming, it's reasonable to check how it treats paid account services before you buy or sell one.

What buying a boost does almost always break is the contract you accepted when you created the account. That has real consequences, just not criminal ones.

What is the difference between breaking the terms of service and breaking the law?

Terms of service are a contract between you and the publisher, so breaking them gives the publisher contractual remedies, mainly account penalties. Breaking a law brings in courts and the state, with fines or prison as possible outcomes.

The practical difference is reach. A publisher can only act on what it controls: your account, your progress and the items attached to them. A criminal law applies to you as a person, which is why the Korean rule covered below is a different kind of risk from a ban.

No game's terms let a publisher fine you or have you arrested. Their power is over the account and what's on it, which is why the practical risks of boosting are bans and lost items, covered in the guide to whether boosting is bannable.

What do game terms of service say about boosting?

Riot and Blizzard ban boosting by name, and Valve bans the account sharing that a solo boost depends on. All three make the account personal and reserve the right to suspend or close it.

These rules govern the relationship between the publisher and the account holder, and they don't depend on whether boosting is a crime in your country. A boost that's perfectly legal at home can still cost you the account, because the publisher enforces its own contract, not local criminal law.

The wording also explains why buyers carry the risk. Blizzard says you're responsible for every use of your login, and Valve says it isn't responsible for what happens after you give your password to someone else. When a booster breaks a rule on your account, the contract you signed is the one that's broken.

Why is boosting illegal in South Korea?

South Korea amended its Game Industry Promotion Act to ban businesses that obtain scores or achievements in a game on someone else's behalf using methods the game company hasn't approved. The amendment was passed in 2018 and has applied since June 25, 2019.

In the official English translation, Article 32(1)11 prohibits disturbing the normal operation of game products by brokering or providing, as a business, services that obtain points or achievements through means the game's operator hasn't approved. Article 45 sets the penalty for breaking that rule: imprisonment with labor for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won.

A Korean lawyer writing in Law Times in 2020 explained that the provision bans the business of brokering or providing proxy play, and that a player who asks someone to play for them is not punished for that alone. English-language coverage from June 2019 reported that the law had just taken effect, and some outlets described the possible prison term as a suspended sentence. The statute itself sets imprisonment of up to two years as the maximum, and the actual sentence in any case is for a court to decide.

Can a game company fine you for boosting?

A publisher can't fine you; its terms only let it act on your account. For buyers, the realistic consequences are suspension, a permanent ban, lost rank and lost purchases.

Riot's League enforcement FAQ shows how this works in practice: a 3-day ban for a first boosting offense, 14 days for a second and a permanent ban for a third, with LP and MMR gains reverted and the season's Ranked Rewards withheld. Since November 19, 2025, Riot also links penalties across accounts it is confident belong to the same person.

Money spent on the account is part of the risk. Riot's terms say no refund is due for content on an account terminated for cause, and Riot can remove or alter virtual content at any time. If you've spent heavily on skins, a ban costs far more than the price of the boost.

Is buying or selling a game account legal?

Buying or selling an account is rarely a crime, but every major publisher forbids it, and bought accounts are high-risk. Publishers treat it as a separate and more serious breach than boosting your own account.

• Riot: its terms bar selling, transferring or offering to sell an account, and its support pages describe accounts as personal, non-transferable and free, with buying and selling strictly prohibited. League's enforcement FAQ says purchased accounts will almost certainly be banned.
• Blizzard: the EULA says you may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any account, that such an attempt is void, and that it may lead to forfeiture of the account.
• Valve: the Subscriber Agreement calls your account strictly personal and bars selling it or charging others to use it.

There's also a practical problem: the original owner usually still controls the email that created the account and can recover it, leaving you with neither the account nor the money. The boosting vs smurfing vs buying accounts guide compares the options in more detail.

Are coaching and duo play legal and allowed?

Coaching on your own account is legal and isn't banned by Riot, Valve or Blizzard's terms. Duo boosting is legal in most places but, in Riot games, still counts as rank manipulation.

Riot's enforcement FAQ says that a high-ranked player duoing in ranked with a lower-ranked account to carry it counts as boosting, while normal games and other modes are fine. In Korea, gaming press reported in 2019 that some paid duo and coaching arrangements could fall under the new law depending on payment and frequency, while ordinary advice or playing with friends is not illegal.

If you want to improve without any rule risk, paid coaching where you play every game yourself is the clean option. The boosting vs coaching guide explains what each costs and what you get.

Where is the real risk if boosting is legal where you live?

For almost everyone, the real risks are to the account and the money, not legal ones. The table puts them in order.

Each of these can be reduced. The account safety checklist covers logins, 2FA and what to change afterward, and paying with a method that supports disputes protects the money side.