Play American Truck Simulator on Mac: How to Play & Benchmarks

Driving long distances on scenic routes on the American coastal highway has always been a dream of many, and American Truck Simulator bridges that gap between game and reality, allowing you to experience exactly that.

If you enjoy the tranquillity of nature, want to drive heavy loads on equal roads, or wish to explore the great states of the United States, then this game is an excellent pick. But how does this critically acclaimed Simulation game run on macOS?

Art	Genre	64-bit	API	M1 Support	Performance	Optimizations
	Adventure		Metal	Native	Poor	None
	Racing		Metal	Native	Excellent	MetalFX
	Action		Metal	Native	Good	MetalFX
	Action		Metal	Native	Excellent	MetalFX
	Adventure		Metal	Native	Good	MetalFX
	Simulation		Metal	Native	Good	None
	Simulation		OpenGL	Rosetta	Good	None
	RPG		Vulkan	Rosetta	Good	None

Can you play American Truck Simulator on Mac?

American Truck Simulator can absolutely be played natively on Mac. This includes both Intel-based and ARM-based models, such as the M1, M2, and M3 models.

The game, however, still does not offer native Apple Silicon support and instead runs on Apple Silicon Macs thanks to Rosetta 2. Even though that compromises performance, the game still runs great on ARM machines, especially the M2 and M3 models. However, you might run into a bit of a struggle at 1440p. In any case, dial the settings down to 1080p and max settings, and you’ll be good to haul your heavy-duty cargo.

American Truck Simulator on M1 Pro MacBook Pro

American Truck Simulator Mac Requirements

The system requirements for American Truck Simulator are pretty much the same as those for Euro Truck Simulator, considering both games utilize similar assets and run on the same engine. Here are the official Mac requirements:

American Truck Simulator Mac settings

Can You Run American Truck Simulator? Benchmarks & Performance

If you plan to run this game on an Apple Silicon Mac, you might expect things to not go well due to non-native support. At the time of writing, American Truck Simulator runs OpenGL and requires Rosetta 2. But you’d be surprised how well this game runs on the new generation of M1, M2, and M3 Macs.

While the game barely goes above 30 FPS on a variety of resolutions, you can still fiddle around with the resolution to make the game look great–without any changes in the FPS department, which is slightly weird.

For the most part, 4K seems to be the sweet spot on the M1 MacBook Pro with 16 Gigs of RAM. Hopefully, we’ll get native Metal support for the title sometime in the future. Still, 30 FPS is acceptable for a game like American Truck Simulator.

American Truck Simulator M1 Mac gameplay

American Truck Simulator on MacBook: Can it run on a M1 MacBook Air

The results on a base M1 MacBook Air are quite mixed (and subjective). You’re looking at a thin aluminum laptop with a densely packed ARMx64 chip that requires a translation layer to run an Intel version of the game. Despite these hurdles and setbacks, Rosetta 2 steps into the picture, and boy, it gets the job done.

Don’t expect wonders, though. You can run the game just fine at 1080p with medium settings, but that’s as far as you can take the game in terms of graphical fidelity. While you might get a lower FPS by dialing up the resolution, the game tends to look visually better and less pixelated. But it’s best if you cap the FPS on all resolutions to 30 FPS.

American Truck Simulator Mac gameplay

The Verdict: Is it worth it on Mac?

While fans of simulator titles might not be reeled in to play American Truck Simulator, it’s worth the salt. It’s one of the finest and most refreshing driving simulators you can play on your MacBook. 

If you’re fine playing a game capped at 30 FPS but at 4K on an M1 MacBook Pro, be our guest. Though it does struggle a bit at higher resolutions and higher graphical fidelity on the M1 MacBook Air, you still get a solid 30–40 FPS at 1080p.

While 60 FPS is the norm and 144 FPS is the upper echelon of gaming these days, 30 FPS at 4K is still great for a Rosetta-translated title running on an M1 chip. Metal support for the title might be on the way. Time will tell.

American Truck Simulator Download

You can download American Truck Simulator from Steam.

Before you go…

Looking for other excellent Simulation games on macOS? Planet Coaster or Farming Simulator 22 are two great choices.