Will GTA VI Be Coming to the Mac? Here’s What We Know So Far

With Apple Silicon quickly becoming more powerful and mature technology, multiple AAA games and exciting titles have made their way to Macs. Plus, Apple has been doubling down on Metal, their native Graphics API developed to improve performance whilst reducing the amount developing time needed to bring games to Apple’s macOS platform.

While tremendous strides have been made, Rockstar has quite a murky history when it comes to cross-platform support, especially for titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. This begs the question, will their newest title, GTA 6, come to the Mac?

GTA 6 is not coming to macOS anytime soon

There’s absolutely no chance that GTA VI will ever come to macOS in the foreseeable future. First of all, Rockstar Games has not even listed Windows as a supported platform, let alone macOS. The game’s official trailer and press releases only mention current-gen consoles.

Moreover, previous GTA games, such as GTA 5 was never ported to Mac, GTA 4 neither. 

The Case for Having Native Grand Theft Auto 6 on Mac

There are a few reasons why Rockstar Games simply does not have the bandwidth or does not feel like they must have a port of GTA VI on the MacBook. 

• No Playerbase: Compared to the PC, Mac gaming is still at a relatively young place. While there are tons of great titles out, even open-world titles, most AAA titles are not released on the Mac due to their small player bases.
• Porting Troubles: GTA VI is Rockstar’s most ambitious project yet. Even the PC version will be released a year or two after the console version, citing cross-platform support as the primary issue. Because of this, it’s clear that significant resources and time need to be expended to be able to port GTA VI to other platforms.
• Future Hardware Woes: While Apple is doubling down on gaming, there is still a significant gap in architecture between consoles, PCs, and mobile games. While Apple Silicon has significantly bridged that gap, the question of whether such a high-level next-gen title can be supported on an ARM-based platform remains to be answered.
• Developmental Timeframes: Rockstar Games has been developing GTA VI for multiple years. They started off at a time when Apple Silicon was not released. Therefore, their core fundamentals did not take mobile or Mac gaming into account, as they were stuck with slower, more expensive Intel chips at that time.

All hope is not lost, though. With Apple significantly improving their CPUs and GPUs over the coming years, the Mac may have the horsepower necessary to run GTA VI, which means that they might be able to run the game, albeit not natively. GTA V, while not initially playable on Mac, now runs relatively smoothly thanks to newer software like Parallels and Game Porting Toolkit. 

So, while we are not expecting to see a native release of GTA VI on the Mac anytime soon, there’s a very high chance that you still may be able to emulate the game on your Mac and still be able to play it! Just look at how well GTA 5 runs on Mac thanks to CrossOver! 

Note:  This is an evolving article, and we’ll update it with new information from Rockstar or Apple regarding GTA VI on the Mac as soon as we get our hands on it!