Hero shooter Valorant is one of the most popular competitive first-person shooters in the market.
From developer Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, Valorant benefited from a massive marketing campaign and an established community eager to see the studio’s take on the FPS formula. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to see Valorant become so popular so fast. But to be fair, Valorant managed to remain one of the most played games simply because it delivers an excellent shooter experience.
Unfortunately, Valorant is one of those games that are not available on macOS. There is a way to still play the game on Mac (provided you have an Intel-based Mac), which we’ll cover later on, but if you prefer to stick to native macOS games, these are games like Valorant that do run on macOS.
Native Mac games like Valorant
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
I’ll forgive you if you don’t recognize the title, as you mostly see it as CS: GO because people don’t want to waste time typing it, they just want to get into the action.
CS: GO is an online tactical first-person shooter and features classic content from the original Counter-Strike, such as revamped versions of classic maps, as well as brand new maps, characters, and game modes.
The game offers the most competitive online Multiplayer out there, including professionals playing on the eSports circuit. CS:GO features cross-platform Multiplayer between Windows and macOS, and if you’re worried that after all these years players might have moved on to something newer, fear not. CS: GO is still among the most played titles on Steam.
One more thing… Be warned though, CS: GO’s Multiplayer is ruthless, filled with players with thousands of hours, and requires much practice to master. On the other hand, it runs great on macOS, even on our base M1 MacBook Air test machine.
System requirements: macOS 10.6.6, 2 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2400 or better / NVidia 8600M or better, 15 GB hard drive space
| Art | Game | Genre | 64-bit? | 64-bit | API | M1 Support | Performance |
|---|
Fortnite
Battle Royale games are still extremely popular, and Fortnite from Epic Games remains the king of the genre. While technically a third-person rather than a first-person shooter, it is nonetheless the hottest shooter in terms of playerbase size, so we thought it deserved to be on our list. That’s right, we’ll bend the rules if a game’s good enough.
Free-to-play, Fortnite puts you in the middle of 100-player PvP battles on a large map where in addition to killing or being killed you gather resources to build shelters and collect weapons and ammo to, again, kill everyone else.
Featuring solo and team modes, Fortnite presses all the traditional shooter buttons. If you’re looking to give that whole Battle Royale thing a try, Fortnite is the game for you.
One more thing… Due to the ongoing lethal battle between Apple and Epic Games, Fortnite hasn’t been updated in a while and therefore no longer supports cross-platform multiplayer with Windows.
System requirements: macOS 10.12.6 and a machine that supports Metal, 2.4 GHz Intel Core i3 Processor, 4 GB RAM, Intel HD 4000 or better
| Art | Game | Genre | 64-bit? | 64-bit | API | M1 Support | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Fortnite | Shooter | Yes |  | Metal | Rosetta | Good |
Borderlands 3
From one of the best FPS series to ever exist, I present to you Borderlands 3.
Tired of shooting psychos in Borderlands 1 and 2? Shoot them again in 3 instead. 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 its 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.
System requirements: macOS Catalina 10.15, Intel Core i7 – 7820X, 16 GB RAM, 59 GB HD space, 4 GB AMD Radeon Pro 580.
| Art | Game | Genre | 64-bit? | 64-bit | API | M1 Support | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Borderlands 3 | Shooter | Yes | | Metal | Rosetta | Average |
More games like Valorant on Mac
While the list of native games like Valorant that can run on Mac is disappointingly short, there are a few other games very similar to Valorant that can run great on Mac using CrossOver or Parallels.
To be clear, these games can only run on Mac if you use either CrossOver or Parallels, two premium third-party Virtualization apps.
Paladins
Set in a fantasy universe that contains both modern weapons and magical elements, Paladins has quickly become one of the most popular multiplayer shooters around. Featuring a unique blend of fantasy and modern weaponry, Paladins shines because it has two things that are rarely found together: Free-to-play and excellent gameplay.
Paladins also includes deck-building elements which you can use to customize your character in a variety of ways and an upgrade system like those found in MOBAs. Ultimately, Paladins is an action-packed game that is fun from the first second you play it. Without a doubt one of the best free shooter games for Mac.
One more thing… Did you know that Paladins used to have a native macOS version? It was unfortunately dropped when Apple stopped supporting 32-bit games…
Overwatch (2)
Overwatch is nowhere near as popular as it was just a couple of years ago. But Blizzard can only blame itself for practically stopping the development of the game in favor of its ill-fated sequel.
But in spite of all the wrong decisions behind the long-term support of the game, Overwatch is still an extremely fun hero shooter. The decision to release Overwatch 2 as a free-to-play game in just a few months is certainly a savvy one and could perhaps allow Overwatch to become once again one of the most beloved competitive FPS IPs on the market.
One more thing… In spite of never receiving a proper native macOS version, the team behind Parallels worked directly with Blizzard to ensure the game runs well on macOS using Parallels.
Team Fortress 2
TF2 is a team-based First-Person Shooter developed by Valve. The game gives you the choice among nine character classes. After choosing a character, you then join one of two teams and battle in a variety of game modes including capture the flag and king of the hill. The style is cartoonish and the gameplay squad-oriented. You will need a solid team to succeed.
Overall, people love it for its art direction, gameplay, humor, and strong community. And as with any other game from Valve, you can expect the same high-quality as always. Being free, this game is not only one of the best Mac FPS, it’s also one of the Mac’s best free games.
One more thing… Team Fortress 2 used to be a mandatory part entry in our yearly Best Mac first-person shooters list, but just like Paladins, its macOS version became unusable the second Apple dropped 32-bit support.
Can you play Valorant on Mac?
Valorant can only be played on Intel-based Macs by using Bootcamp. If you own an M1 Mac, it is currently impossible to play Valorant. This is due to the game’s strict anti-cheat system that prevents it from working on neither Parallels, CrossOver, or even streaming.
Perhaps you are still hoping that Valorant could one day come to macOS, but according to Brent Meister, Riot’s Senior Software Engineer, this is not going to happen:
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there are no current plans for Valorant to support Mac OSX. For now, to play Valorant you’ll just have to bite the bullet and free up space for Bootcamp or build a Windows PC.
If you want to play Valorant on Mac, you’ll need an Intel-based Mac and Bootcamp.
Playing Valorant through Bootcamp
Boot Camp is a free utility that allows you to install and run Windows on your Mac in the same way you would on any other computer: natively.
But be aware that Boot Camp is currently unavailable for M1 Macs.
How to set it up? Installing Windows using Boot Camp is straightforward. You just need to open the Boot Camp application in your Utilities folder and follow the assistant. You can also check Apple’s support page for FAQs and guides on how to install and use Boot Camp.
Benefits:
- Easy to install
- Highest possible performance
- No extra costs (other than a Windows license)
Drawbacks:
- Unpractical (you need to reboot your machine just to play a Windows-only game)
- Requires a Windows license
- Requires lots of hard drive space (Windows installation + games)
Bottom line: If you absolutely want to play Valorant on Mac, you’ll need Boot Camp.
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