In spite of being available for several years, Indie superstar Terraria continues to make noise and capture the attention of thousands of gamers on a daily basis. The fact that it continues to receive significant free updates certainly helps it stay relevant, and many consider it one of the best adventure games on Mac.
But what does it take to run this indie gem? How well can your Mac run Terraria? Can it run on M1 Macs? More importantly, how can you fix the tiny UI on macOS that makes the game barely playable?
Can you play Terraria on Mac?
You can absolutely play Terraria 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.
Terraria running on Mac M1 Pro
Terraria is one of those games that was just meant to run well on basically any modern machine. The retro graphics definitely help. This was already the case, as the game runs just fine on Intel Macs, but Apple Silicon Macs can run it even better. More on that below.
| Art | Game | Genre | 64-bit? | 64-bit | API | M1 Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Terraria | Adventure | Yes |  | TBC | Rosetta |
Terraria on Mac: Everything you need to know
Terraria is a side-scrolling game that lets you build, dig, and explore.
The game’s world is randomly generated, and no two games will be the same. This makes the exploration side of the game extremely fun. Plus, there are lots of creeps, so crafting a shelter, weapons, and combat play an important role. The crafting system is ridiculously deep and gives you many options to create weapons. Terraria is very similar to Minecraft. In fact, many see it as Minecraft in 2D, but once you start playing, you will notice all the things that make it unique. There are many more creeps to kill, tons of weapons to craft, and even bosses.
Like Minecraft, the game uses cute retro graphics that also happen to be easy on your Mac. You won’t need a powerful Mac to enjoy this game.
Terraria Mac UI issue
Terraria UI fix for macOS
Due to the high-resolution retina screens on modern MacBooks, Terraria will launch by default with a UI that is so small you won’t be able to actually play the game. Changing the game’s resolution won’t help, and changing your screen resolution won’t either. At this stage, most abandon the game, but there’s actually an easy fix. When running the game:
1. Go to Settings, General, and increase the UI Scale percentage
2. Adjust the Scale to something that suits you, probably around 125% or more.
And there you have it; now the game will be fully playable without needing to squint everything you open a menu!
Terraria Mac requirements
These are the game’s official Mac requirements:
| Requirements | |
| OS: | 10.9.5 |
| Processor: | 2.0 GHz |
| Memory: | 2.5 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | 128 MB Video Memory, capable of OpenGL 3.0+ support |
| Hard Drive: | 200 MB |
| A 64-Bit OS and processor are required | |
How to play Terraria on Mac
As mentioned before, Terraria 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 so 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 Terraria 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 Terraria on Mac? M1 and Intel Benchmarks
These are the Terraria M1 benchmarks we have gathered so far (you can find more details about the game’s Apple Silicon version here):
| Game | Machine | Resolution | Settings | Other | FPS | Tester | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terraria | 💻 M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14", 16 GB | 1512x982 | High | 60 | Mac Gamer HQ | ||
| Terraria | 💻 M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14", 16 GB | 1920x1200 | High | 60 | Mac Gamer HQ |
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 | |||
| Our rating | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Requirements | ✅ Not Demanding | ✅ Not Demanding | ✅ Not Demanding |
| Check Price |
Can you play Terraria on a MacBook Pro?
Based on the several tests we’ve performed on a base M1 MacBook Air, we can safely confirm that Terraria runs smoothly on a modern MacBook Pro. In fact, you can go ahead and bump the settings and resolution to high gear and still expect excellent performance.
In fact, this is one of those games that will run just fine on basically any Intel Mac, no matter how old it is. The game can become slightly demanding in endgame content at times when many things are happening on screen at the same time, but even then, most Macs should be able to handle it at Medium settings and a reasonable resolution such as 1440×900.
How to download Terraria on Mac
While Terraria is available from several Digital stores, your best bet is to purchase it, download it and install it via Steam (especially as most Digital stores are basically selling Steam keys).
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