Does blender need to be installed for a runtime executable?

After I publish my game into a runtime executeable, if I send it to my friend who does not have Blender installed, will it run?

You need not install Blender to run the standalone executable, hence the name “standalone”; however, be aware that you need to pack the required DLLs and Python with it. There are checkboxes at the bottom-left of the Save As Game Engine Runtime export file explorer window “Copy Python” and “Copy DLLs” should be ticked.

I believe Blender also requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 redistributable on Windows, so I would try installing that if you run into issues with a BGE game not running.

Also, note that your friend must have the same platform that your stand alone was created on. Else, you’ll have to create a cross ( or multi ) platform standalone that will run on his machine. See: Questions on creating cross platform stand-alones