GUIDE / BEFORE YOU INSTALL

How games run on Apple silicon Macs

“Runs on a Mac” can mean three different things. Which one applies decides what you buy or download, what you need to install first, and whether it keeps working on future macOS versions.

The three ways side by side

	Native	Rosetta	CrossOver / Wine
What runs	A Mac program for Apple silicon (or a Universal one)	A Mac program for Intel	A Windows program
Who makes it work	The developer or the porting project	macOS translates it automatically	The layer translates Windows commands into Mac commands
What you install first	No processor-translation layer	Rosetta, when macOS asks (one click)	CrossOver (paid) and then the Windows game inside it
Get Info shows	Application (Apple silicon) or Application (Universal)	Application (Intel)	The CrossOver app; the game itself is a Windows .exe
Future	Follows the developer’s updates	General use through macOS 27; from macOS 28 limited to certain older games	Depends on CrossOver and the game

The table says nothing about speed: a native game can still be demanding, and how fast a translated or Windows game runs depends on the game. There is no single ranking.

Check what an installed app is

Read Kind in Get Info

Select the app in Finder and press ⌘I. Kind reads “Application (Apple silicon)”, “Application (Universal)” or “Application (Intel)”.

Kind says Apple silicon, Universal or Intel.

List every Intel app on this Mac

On macOS 27, open System Settings › General › About and click Details next to Intel-based Apps.

You see the list of apps that still need Rosetta.

Or ask Terminal about the program inside

A Mac app’s program sits in Contents/MacOS. The file command prints the processor types it contains:

Architecture of the program inside an app

file "/Applications/Example.app/Contents/MacOS/"*

The output names arm64 (native), x86_64 (Intel), or both (Universal).

Rosetta: install it, and the macOS 28 change

Opening an Intel app on a Mac without Rosetta brings up a prompt: click Install and enter your user name and password. To install it ahead of time:

Install Rosetta from Terminal

softwareupdate --install-rosetta

Planning a purchase? Apple states that Rosetta is available on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 27 or earlier, and that from macOS 28 it will be limited to certain older, unmaintained games. A game that only exists for Intel may stop working on a future macOS unless it falls in that group.

CrossOver and Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit

CrossOver (for players)

Runs Windows software on the Mac by translating Windows commands into Mac commands; CodeWeavers says it is not an emulator.
A paid app with a trial; use the CodeWeavers download page to try it with your game.
Apple silicon needs macOS 11.1 or later and CrossOver 21 or later.
If a store lists no Mac version of a game, CrossOver runs its Windows version. That is not a Mac port, and whether a given game works depends on the game.

Game Porting Toolkit (for developers)

Apple’s toolkit for bringing games to Mac, iPad and iPhone.
Its evaluation environment runs an unmodified Windows game on Apple silicon so a developer can estimate performance and check shader conversion.
It is aimed at developers evaluating a port, not at players.

Four ways a game becomes native

Every game in this guide runs natively. They get there by four routes, and the route decides what you have to bring.

Official Mac port: The publisher sells a native Mac version. You buy it in a store and install it like any app.
Here: Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Resident Evil 4
Community source port: A community project rebuilt the game as a native program from reverse-engineered source. You supply your own ROM; the app extracts the game data from it.
Here: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Static recompilation: The original console machine code was translated ahead of time into a native program. You supply your own ROM; the project's download contains no game data.
Here: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Switch-native builder: A script on your Mac turns your own Switch game files into a Mac app: the game's ARM64 code runs directly, a small host answers the Switch system services, and graphics go through Metal. Nothing from the game is downloaded.
Here: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo II: Resurrected

Comparing the MacNativeGames build of Tears of the Kingdom with a Switch emulator? The emulator runs the console’s software in general; the builder rewrites one game’s own code for the Mac and only accepts the versions it was made for. See how the Tears of the Kingdom route works, and what both Switch-native builders need from you.