Introduction to gaming on Apple silicon M1 Macs

Welcome to AppleGamingWiki and our main introduction to gaming on Apple silicon M1 Macs.

Introduction

Apple silicon Macs were introduced in November 2020, bringing about a new era of CPU and GPU performance which rivals that of high-end Intel desktops - but using a virtually silent and much more power-efficient form factor. This new chipset is no less than a revolution in integrated chip gaming performance - the M1 ARM chip is now completely capable of running high-end AAA games - but only if they are compatible with the new ARM platform.

Unfortunately few games are currently taking advantage of the full benefits of Apple silicon, and most games rely on the Rosetta 2 translation layer to run existing Intel macOS games on the new ARM chip. However there are many methods, fixes and workarounds available to get excellent macOS, iPhone, iPad and even triple-AAA Windows games working through methods like CrossOver, Parallels and Windows ARM. But getting compatibility information is really tough as information (and misinformation) is strewn around various forums and websites on the internet.

Methods

Different ways of playing games on Apple silicon M1 Macs:

Native

At time of writing in early 2021, there are very few 'native' written games, let alone software, which fully take advantage of M1 Apple silicon hardware. A few notable games at launch includes World of Warcraft and Disco Elysium (Mac App Store version).