If you have a Mac and you're itching to play on Mac, You are no longer condemned to watch as 90% of your Steam library doesn't workIn recent years, Apple Silicon, Metal, and new portability tools have significantly changed the landscape. It's not a perfect world, but there are many more and better options to choose from.
Using the most comprehensive websites and analyses on the internet, we have gathered and reorganized a huge catalog of games for MacFrom the best native and optimized games, to how they perform on M2, M3, or M4 chips, which Mac is worth it for gaming, and how to get the most out of your machine with ports, emulation, or cloud gaming. All in a single article, explained in clear and concise Spanish (from Spain).
The best Mac games at a glance: strategy, role-playing, action, and more
Today you can fill your Mac with games of virtually any genre, but some categories shine particularly brightly: strategy, turn-based RPGs, indie games, management games, and titles less dependent on the GPUEven so, there are also some very respectable modern AAA games.
Among the current top-rated games that run wonderfully on Mac are Civilization VI, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 (native version for Apple Silicon), Resident Evil Village, Hades and its sequel Hades IIas well as modernized classics like Tomb Raider and Metro Exodus. Several are distributed on Steam, others on the Mac App Store, and some through their own launchers.
In addition to AAA games, macOS offers a very powerful ecosystem of indie and management gamesFactorio, RimWorld, Stardew Valley, Cities: Skylines, The Witness, Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn or Disco Elysium are just some examples of titles that not only work well, but in many cases are considered among the best in the medium.
You're not lacking in competitive multiplayer either: League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 (or CSGO in earlier versions), Hearthstone, Warframe, Albion Online, Final Fantasy XIV Online, and The Elder Scrolls Online They have a Mac client or a playable version with good results, provided your computer can handle it.
In parallel, Apple has boosted its own ecosystem with Apple ArcadeBut most of the big titles we're talking about here They are not exclusive to Arcadebut full games from Steam, Epic Games, GOG or the App Store itself, many of them shared with PC and consoles.
Top paid games for Mac: the best of the best
If you don't mind paying and want a sure thing, there's a section of pay games These features appear on every expert list, and for good reason. Here, we've compiled the highlights, summarizing their key points so you know what to expect from your Mac.
Total War: Warhammer III It tops many strategy lists on Mac. It combines massive real-time battles with a turn-based campaign map in the Warhammer universe. It's perfect for anyone who enjoys complex management, diplomacy, and insane armiesThe learning curve is steep, but if you get hooked, you can lose hundreds of hours among demons, holy bears, and endless sieges.
In the realm of horror and action, Resident Evil Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake These are the two major modern offerings on Mac. Village drops you into a Central European village teeming with grotesque creatures, while RE4 takes you to a modernized reinterpretation of the classic set in rural Spain. In both cases, the atmosphere, the graphics, and the tension They work wonderfully, and the performance on Apple Silicon is surprisingly solid.
For those seeking a deep role, Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition They are essential. Both are turn-based tactical RPGs, with brutal freedom when solving missions, highly systemic combat systems, and branching narrativesBG3 draws inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons and lets you forge your own story with important moral choices; Divinity focuses on playing with the environment (electricity in puddles, poison, fire, etc.) to create memorable battles and outrageous cooperative games.
In pure narrative role-playing, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut It takes the cake. You're a detective broken by life who wakes up with no memory in a depressed city. Combat is practically nonexistent here. Everything revolves around conversations, dialogue choices, and a system of psychological skills that is completely different from the norm.It's slow, yes, but if you like dense, well-written stories, it's one of the best games you can play on Mac.
Regarding open worlds, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition It has undergone a tremendous redemption arc. It launched broken, was fixed with years of patches and the Phantom Liberty expansion, and now, in its native macOS version with Apple Silicon, it offers A spectacular Night City, full of side stories, weighty decisions, and hybrid combat combining shooting, stealth, and hacking.It's not a minor port: properly configured, on a robust Mac it can deliver an experience on par with a mid-to-high-end gaming PC.
In classical historical strategy, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris They cover almost the entire spectrum: from ruling an empire from the Stone Age to the modern era, rewriting centuries of history, experiencing World War II in detail, or expanding across the galaxy with alien races and interstellar diplomacy. Here macOS is almost premium territoryMost of these games run smoothly and, except for gigantic campaigns, they work surprisingly well with Apple chips.
For those who want roguelike experiences with action, Hades and Hades II They exemplify how to combine frenetic combat, short play sessions you always want to repeat, and a story that progresses precisely because you die. You control Zagreus in the first game and Melinoë in the second. dodging attacks, chaining blows, and choosing blessings from the gods of Olympus that completely change each run.
In the niche of simulators and management, Cities: Skylines, Factorio, RimWorld, Football Manager 2023, Two Point Hospital and DiRT Rally They shine with their own light. Cities forces you to think like a mayor obsessed with traffic, public services and citizen happinessFactorio is an ode to industrial automation and increasingly complex factories; RimWorld blends space colony simulation with an AI director who throws unexpected events at you; Football Manager 2023 turns every detail of your club into a vital decision; Two Point Hospital inherits the spirit of Theme Hospital with absurd diseases; and DiRT Rally is one of the most demanding driving experiences you can install on your Mac.
The best free games for Mac: from MOBAs to MMOs
If you don't want to spend money upfront, There are quite a few free-to-play games that work on Mac and are featured in all the specialized guides.Almost all of them make their money from cosmetics or expansions, but you can play for dozens or even hundreds of hours without spending a penny. Check out our guide to the best free games for Mac for more details.
League of Legends It's the undisputed king of MOBAs. Two teams of five champions fight to destroy the enemy base, and each character has unique abilities. What makes it so addictive is the mix of Pure mechanics (reflexes, aim, combos) and real-time tactical decision-makingPlus, a constant schedule of patches, events, and limited-time modes. That said, its community can be a bit rough, especially if you're starting from scratch.
Dota 2Also free on Steam, it's the more complex alternative. It maintains the same 5v5 concept on a fixed map, but with a Brutal strategic depth and a tough learning curveIn return, the tactical possibilities are enormous, and the competitive scene is one of the strongest in eSports.
If you prefer direct action, Counter-Strike 2 (or previous versions of CS:GO available on Mac depending on your system's compatibility) remains the quintessential tactical shooter. It combines quick matches, surgical precision, and a well-established metaThe maps are known down to the millimeter, rounds are decided by the smallest details, and it requires both aim and patience. Online matchmaking and the competitive scene keep the game very much alive.
In card games, Hearthstone It offers quick matches where you build decks with characters from the Warcraft universe. It's simple at first, but if you get hooked, You start thinking about synergies, mana curves, and tech cards to adapt to the meta. You can play well without spending money, although to build very specific decks it's easy to end up spending money.
In the MMO field, Final Fantasy XIV Online and The Elder Scrolls Online These are the main references compatible with Mac. FFXIV has a generous free trial (including the base game and the Heavensward expansion for many hours of gameplay), and focuses on An epic and well-crafted story, with cooperative raids and a fairly friendly communityESO takes you to Tamriel with constant expansions, guilds, dungeons, and massive PvP; you pay for the base game and the expansions you want, with optional subscriptions.
Other F2P titles that are very present in the lists are Warframe, Albion Online, Sparta: War of Empires, Mech Arena and various multiplatform shooters or MMOsWarframe is a cooperative space action and parkour game with customizable warframes; Albion is a medieval sandbox with a player-managed economy; Sparta focuses on real-time strategy with lots of politics and negotiation; and Mech Arena lets you assemble your squad of robots for fast-paced PvP battles.
In life simulation, The sims 4 It has a free base version for Mac through Origin, Steam, or the App Store. The downside is that without expansions it's somewhat limited; the upside is that It remains one of the best games for building houses, managing lives, and staging personal dramas.And the modding community expands the content almost to infinity.
Classics, indies and must-have gems on macOS
Beyond the latest games, on Mac you have access to a vast library of classics and indie gems that never go out of style, many of them extremely well optimized for Apple computers.
On the front line is the Half-Life saga (including episodes), Portal and Portal 2Counter-Strike Classic and Team Fortress. Despite the years, they remain benchmarks of level design, environmental storytelling, and first-person gameplayPortal and its sequel, in particular, blend puzzles, physics, and humor in a way that few games have matched.
If you like Metroidvania games and 2D action, Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Terraria and FEZ They're almost mandatory. Hollow Knight combines an interconnected world, challenging combat, and exquisite art; Dead Cells offers a rogue-lite with procedurally generated levels and a constant sense of progression; Terraria seems simple, but It is one of the deepest 2D sandboxes in existenceFEZ plays with perspective and puzzles in a pixelated world that remains a benchmark a decade later.
In indie narrative, there are true marvels: Gone Home, Firewatch, Life is Strange (and its sequel), INSIDE, LIMBO, This War of MineThese are games that forgo complex mechanics to focus on Tell personal stories, play with the atmosphere, and make you thinkFrom returning home and discovering what has happened to your family, to spending a summer as a forest ranger or experiencing the consequences of war from the perspective of civilians.
There is no shortage of graphic adventures: the classic Monkey Island trilogy, Return to Monkey Island, The Witness, Tunic, Return of the Obra Dinn…All of them explore, in their own way, the intersection between puzzle and narrative. The Witness drops you onto an island full of puzzle panels that gradually reveal their own visual language; Obra Dinn is almost an experiment in detective novel format; Return to Monkey Island recaptures the humor and spirit of the classics with a new art style.
In survival and open worlds, ARK: Survival Evolved, Rust, Project Zomboid, No Man's Sky, Mad Max And others offer intense experiences. ARK mixes dinosaurs, science fiction, and intensive crafting; Rust emphasizes the interaction (good or bad) with other playersProject Zomboid is one of the toughest and most systemic zombie survival games out there, where hunger, cold, and disease are as dangerous as the undead; No Man's Sky, after many patches, has become a virtually endless space journey; and Mad Max offers a post-apocalyptic sandbox focused on driving and vehicular combat.
For lovers of construction and pure creativity, Minecraft and Garry's Mod They remain two fundamental pillars. Minecraft needs no introduction: exploration, building, survival, and endless mods; Garry's Mod is almost more of a toolbox than a game, allowing create your own modes and experiences or enjoy those of the community.
Real-world performance: which Mac is best for gaming and how far it can go
This entire catalog is very good, but the question is obvious: How does a Mac perform when it comes to running real games? The answer depends a lot on whether your computer is an older Intel or a newer Apple Silicon, and what price range it falls into.
The hardware guides all agree in pointing to the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra (or similar high-end configurations) as the absolute benchmark for gaming on macOSWith up to 76 GPU cores and plenty of unified memory, it can run games like No Man's Sky at over 120 FPS in 4K with maxed-out graphics, or Resident Evil Village in the 80-100 FPS range in 4K. It doesn't quite reach the level of a Windows PC with an RTX 4070/4080 for the same price, but within the Mac ecosystem, it's a significant leap.
On a laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Max or M3 Pro/M3 Max chips It offers a very good balance between power and portability. You can expect to play most modern titles at 1080p or 1440p with high quality and stable refresh rates, also taking advantage of 120Hz mini-LED display, good sound, decent battery, and a sufficiently capable cooling systemHowever, during long sessions the chip does reduce performance slightly to control temperatures.
If you're looking for something more affordable, the Mac mini with M2 Pro It appears on many lists as a reasonable entry point to gaming on Mac. It's not designed for 4K ultra, but it performs very well at 1080p, especially with native Apple Silicon titles. Furthermore, it's an excellent little machine for emulating older consoles (PS3, Wii U, Switch, etc.) as long as you know what you're doing.
On the downside, the MacBook Air and entry-level Mac minis with less powerful integrated GPUs They're not the best option if you want to run recent AAA games with everything maxed out. They work great with indies, strategy games, roguelikes, management games, and even some well-optimized big titles, but They're not designed to run Cyberpunk 2077 or Total War on ultra settings.especially at high resolutions.
The guidelines also agree that Choosing an Intel Mac for gaming today doesn't make much sense anymore.Apple has stopped selling them, macOS Sequoia has cut support for several models, and the external eGPU trick was limited by both compatibility and Thunderbolt bandwidth. For gaming, Apple Silicon is the present and the future of Mac.
Cyberpunk 2077 on Mac: a symbol of a new era
One of the clearest examples of the paradigm shift is The arrival of Cyberpunk 2077 as a native game on macOS with Apple SiliconWe're not talking about a light indie game, but a massive open-world RPG, with a density of NPCs, quests, interiors, and visual effects that a few years ago would have been unthinkable on a Mac without resorting to Windows.
On a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip (or M4 Pro, depending on the latest iterations), the "For This Mac" graphics preset adjusts resolution and effects. to maintain a stable 60 FPS without having to go crazy tweaking slidersOn more powerful models, such as a Mac Studio, you can enable ray tracing, increase resolution and texture detail, and still play smoothly.
The curious thing is that, while on consoles the game experienced a traumatic launch and many hours of patching, Mac gamers have arrived late but at the perfect timeThe game is now a polished masterpiece, with the Phantom Liberty expansion included in the complete edition, and all quality-of-life improvements applied. Night City is played here exactly as it should have been from the start.
Furthermore, integration with the Apple ecosystem opens up some very interesting combinations: you can use Apple Vision Pro as a floating extended display for your MacConnecting a DualSense controller and playing Cyberpunk 2077 in a kind of portable cinema, with very low latency. It's not native VR, but it is a unique immersive experience that only this ecosystem currently offers.
The case of Cyberpunk 2077 is, at its core, a message for the industry: macOS can now host large AAA games with official support, content parity, and decent performance.The next logical step would be for more developers to be encouraged to release their games simultaneously on Windows PC and Mac, not years later.
Compatibility, emulation and cloud gaming: how to expand the catalog
Despite all these improvements, we must be realistic: Not all good PC games have a Mac version.And many use engines or APIs that are very closely tied to DirectX. The modern Call of Duty franchise itself is an example of a franchise almost entirely absent from the macOS ecosystem.
To mitigate this, you have several options. One is to use emulators and portability tools, such as Apple's Game Porting Toolkit, which allows adapting Windows games to macOS with less friction than before—or even Transform your Mac with Asahi Linux—. The results vary: some titles run surprisingly well, others suffer from performance issues or have visual bugs. It's a slightly more technical world, but it opens doors for many games that will never see an official port.
Another option is the Virtual machines with Windows (Parallels, VMware, etc.)For office tasks or development, they're excellent; for gaming, however, they suffer from the limitations of the virtualization layer and, except in very specific cases, are not recommended for demanding 3D games. You lose performance and graphics compatibility.
It is gaining more and more importance cloud gameServices like Xbox Cloud Gaming, GeForce NOW, and similar platforms let you stream games from your browser or application that your Mac could never run natively, using data centers with powerful machines. The experience depends on your connection (latency and stability are key), but It opens the door to games like Sea of ​​Thieves, Persona 5 Royal, Fortnite in browsers, etc. without installing anything heavy on your computer.
In any case, if your priority is playing games that are natively and conveniently available, the stores to keep on your radar are: Steam, Epic Games Store, the Mac App Store and the official websites of certain developersBefore clicking the purchase button, always check the requirements and compatibility tab for macOS and Apple Silicon; you'll save yourself headaches and returns.
The state of gaming on Mac in 2025 and beyond is far less bleak than it was a decade ago. You have Dozens of great native games, a flood of quality indies, several modern AAA titles (including Cyberpunk 2077) running really well, and a growing ecosystem of tools to fill in the gaps.If you choose your Mac model wisely—prioritizing GPU and cooling over ultra-thin designs—and combine a native catalog, some emulation, and perhaps some cloud gaming, your computer ceases to be "just a work machine" and becomes a pretty serious platform for gaming, without needing to install Windows or build a separate PC.
