Windows games on a Mac, explained.
Honest, plain-English guides to playing Windows games on Apple Silicon Macs — every method, not just ours. Facts checked 23 September 2026.
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Play Windows games on a Mac
Every way to run Windows games on an Apple Silicon Mac — CrossOver, free Wine apps, Game Porting Toolkit, Parallels, cloud gaming — with what works, what doesn't and why.
How-to guides
- How Grapple worksRosetta 2, Wine and the graphics layers: what Grapple uses, and why.
- Windows Steam on a MacMac Steam vs Windows Steam, the setup, and the black-window problem explained.
- GOG on a MacThe Windows GOG Galaxy in a Windows environment — and the offline-installer route that skips it.
- Epic Games on a MacThe Windows Epic launcher on Apple Silicon, its 1 GB first run, and the Fortnite question.
- DirectX games on a MacHow DirectX gets translated to Metal, and which layer suits which game.
- Game Porting Toolkit GUIsGPTK and D3DMetal in plain English, and the apps that wrap them.
- Anti-cheat games on a MacKernel anti-cheat, Wine and virtual machines — and the options that remain.
Comparisons and alternatives
CrossOver is a trademark of CodeWeavers, Inc. Grapple is not affiliated with CodeWeavers. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.