Borderlands 3 on Mac: How to Play & M1 Benchmarks

It is no secret that many of the best and most popular games are not available on macOS. This is specially true for first-person shooters. All the top franchises are suspiciously absent on Mac, except the Borderlands series.

In this case, Borderlands 3, the latest entry in the series, does support macOS and features impressive graphics. But what does it take to run this notoriously demanding game on macOS? How well can your Mac run Borderlands 3? Can it run on M1 Macs?

Can you play Borderlands 3 on Mac?

You can absolutely play Borderlands 3 on your Mac, including Intel and Apple Silicon Models. Even if the official system requirements don’t mention M1 or M2 Macs, our benchmarks confirm the game runs fine on Apple Silicon Macs.

Borderlands 3 on macOS

Borderlands macOS versions have always been by Aspyr Media, which is good because Aspyr is one of the oldest and more knowledgeable Mac porting companies in the industry. This time, though, developer Gearbox decided to take the Mac version of the game on its own hands. This was the first time they handle a macOS port of a game, and unfortunately, it shows… Borderlands 3’s Mac performance is abysmal and you’ll need a top of the line machine to run this game properly. More on that below.

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support
	Borderlands 3	Shooter	Yes		Metal	Rosetta

Borderlands 3 on Mac: Everything you need to know

The Borderlands franchise does not need an introduction. The first Borderlands basically created the looter shooter genre, and the subsequent entries have refined it. If you’re looking for an action-packed shooter full of weapons but also abilities and powers, look no further than Borderlands 3. And if you’re a superhero fan, watch The Boys and all the Marvel movies; you’ll feel oddly at home too.

Featuring new vault hunters, new skills, and new guns, the game still delivers exactly what you would expect from a borderlands game. Shoot, kill, loot, rinse and repeat. It definitely does not disappoint old fans of this franchise, and new players are in for a blast.

But if for any of those here for the story, this might be the wrong place for you. Borderlands was never known for their amazing plot, but it had plenty of memorable characters for you to laugh with and care for. Just look at Handsome Jack, one of the best villains in video game history. That same spark just isn’t there for this one, so take note of that before you buy.

Borderlands 3 Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

How to play Borderlands 3 on Mac

As mentioned before, Borderlands 3 runs natively on macOS, including Intel-based Macs and M1/M2 Macs.

The game does require Rosetta 2 to run on Apple Silicon Macs. But Rosetta 2 works seamlessly (it installs automatically the first time it detects an Intel-based app), and it integrates so well with macOS that the experience is virtually the same as running a native Apple Silicon Mac.

This means Borderlands 3 can run on macOS without requiring any third-party software. Therefore, we won’t waste your time talking about Parallels, Crossover (both excellent tools, but only useful for Windows-exclusive games…), or Streaming services.

Can you play Borderlands 3 on Mac? Benchmarks

These are the Borderlands 3 M1 benchmarks we have gathered so far:

As a reminder, this is how we describe the different levels of performance:

• Below 20 FPS: Unplayable: Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns.
• 20-30 FPS: Borderline: Can be OK in slow-paced games. Still, not optimal.
• 30-45 FPS: Playable: Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this).
• 45-60 FPS: Smooth: Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters.
• 60+ FPS: Very Smooth: For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.

Into Adventure games? These are our favorites:

Game	★ Best Overall	Best Value	Best MacBook
	Minecraft	Psychonauts 2	Vampire Survivors
Genre	Sandbox	Exploration	Run & Gun
Release date	2009	2021	2022
Metascore	93	89	86
Our rating	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★
Requirements	✅ Not Demanding	✅ Not Demanding	✅ Not Demanding
Check Price	Check Price	Check Price	Check Price

Can you play Borderlands 3 on a MacBook Pro?

When Aspyr was at the helm, performance was on check. But as mentioned before, this was not the case with Borderlands 3.

Based on the tests performed by friend of the channel MrMacRight, Borderlands 3 is an extremely demanding game to run. This is also somewhat the case on Windows, which indicates the game could probably use further performance optimizations. Having said that, the macOS version of the game is in a particularly rough spot. When trying to run in it on a base M1 MacBook Pro, the game could barely run, sitting somewhere around 22 FPS, which is much too low for our taste.

Borderlands 3 does run significantly better on an M1 Pro (or better), which means that this is a game you should avoid at all costs unless you have a top of the line Intel or M1/M2 Mac…

Download Borderlands 3 for Mac

You can download the game on Epic Games (we usually prefer Steam but for some weird deal between publisher 2K Games and Epic Games, the macOS version of the game is not available on Steam).