Apple Silicon is going through its second renaissance when it comes to gaming. With AAA titles like Resident Evil 4 gracing us the past year, we expect even more AAA developers and Indie devs to bring their titles to the Mac platform.
As more individuals make the move to Apple Silicon, it is only a matter of time before the Mac gaming catalog drastically increases. But, for now, here’s a list of the top Mac games of 2024 that we’re looking forward to.
Best Mac games of 2024?
Death Stranding
Status: ✅ Confirmed
A fan of walking? Death Stranding has got you covered. From the critically acclaimed game creator Hideo Kojima, the game is an extremely thought-provoking, genre-defining RPG that has you navigate through the terrains of a decimated American society. It is quite slow in terms of pace and isn’t really the most action-packed game that Kojima’s developed, fresh off of titles like Metal Gear Solid.
The game will use the complete suite of Metal 3 features, which means MetalFX upscaling and an emphasis on high frame rate, which means that you can expect 60+ FPS gameplay. While we aren’t sure how it’ll perform, the fact that it’ll offer complete native support gives us much hope.
Arctic Awakening
Status: ✅ Confirmed
If the winter blues haven’t hit you yet, Arctic Awakening will ensure you get your season-dictated sadness quite early. This first-person narrative-based survival adventure game has you traverse treacherous forests and jungles as you move through them with your court-mandated therapy bot.
While a friend at best and a nuisance at worst, the game blends dialogue-based prompts into the entirety of the title, focusing more on exploration and creating stories than anything else. The game is expected to be released on Mac; however, there’s no confirmation as to whether it’ll be natively supported or not. Taking a look at the graphics, we can assume that it should run well on most Macs. Plus, the developers do use Macs, which is always a good sign.
DELTARUNE
Status: ✅ Released (Chapter 3 TBA)
Another epic roleplaying game, DELTARUNE is the massively anticipated extension in the Undertale franchise, developed by the same Indie developer, tobyfox. The game seems to follow the same graphical philosophy, focusing on more dark themes and pixel-art graphics coupled with text-based narratives and a very cozy soundtrack supplementing the entire game. While the gameplay loop isn’t explicitly explained yet, we can expect the game to be an absolute smash hit if Undertale’s track record is anything to go by.
In terms of Mac performance, expect this game to run well on all platforms, whether it ends up being natively supported or not. this is because it doesn’t really seem graphically demanding, and you should be able to easily play this on older Macs with no troubles whatsoever.
Note: The game’s first chapters have already been released; we’re all waiting patiently for Chapter 3, 4, and 5!
Paralives
Status: ✅ Confirmed
Don’t like the Sims? Paralives is your best friend, then. Developed by a team of 11 people, Paralives is a house life simulation game that you’ll confuse for the acclaimed EA title if you don’t focus on the unique graphical style that the game employs. Create your dream house or make a character with an insane level of customization right out of the gate. The game is going to be built on Unity and be released on Steam. The developers, however, have still not mentioned whether it’ll be Mac native or not.
Plus, Unity hasn’t had the best track record recently when it comes to optimization – so we’re hoping for the best!
EITR
Status: ✅ Confirmed
Eitr is an isometric RPG that’s been described as Souls-like but with better combat. As the shield Maiden, you have to venture into the unknown nine Norse worlds that are connected by Yggdrasil to learn more about yourself. The game features great combat, with an emphasis on variety and unique playstyles for each.
For the Mac, the developers haven’t been very explicit on its native support just yet. However, judging by how the game looks overall, we’re expecting that this game should run well on the Macs, given that its primarily pixel-art based and doesn’t feature extremely realistic graphics.
The Last Night
Status: ✅ Confirmed
Cinematic platformers have not had their fair share in the market for a long while. The Last Night attempts to change that by blending in Cyberpunk with extremely beautiful visuals in this Indie adventure game that presents a deep, dystopian view of the future. You play as Charlie, a second-class citizen who has to navigate this world with a rich soundtrack to accompany him.
This is the first game being released by the developer Odd Tales, which is why we’re not exactly sure how it’ll run on the Mac and if The Last Night is natively supported on Apple Silicon or not. It does seem to be fairly graphically intensive, so we’ll keep you posted on whether it is actually worth picking up once it is released.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Status: ✅ Confirmed
It is truly exciting to see an Assassin’s Creed game being released on the Mac, iPhone, PC, and other consoles simultaneously. Yes, there’s going to be no changes or differences whatsoever between all of these releases. Needless to say, the game will definitely be Mac native supported and will be taking advantage of Metal 3. Otherwise, there’s no way that a complete Assassin’s Creed game can run just on virtualization.
In terms of how well it’ll run, that’s a whole other debacle that we’ll get to unpack when the game’s actually released. However, judging by the fact that the developers want this to run natively on the iPhone, we can expect good performance on the Mac platforms as well.
World of Warcraft: The War Within
Status: ✅ Confirmed (based on macOS support for all previous expansions)
World of Warcraft was one of the first games to properly support native ARM Mac right out of the box. And the latest 10th expansion of the game seems to be the most anticipated one yet. We’ll see completely new sub-terranean worlds re-visit the Nerubian Empire while getting a completely new allied race, the Earthen! Besides that, Delves is going to be a new end-game pillar with the usual expansion in Dungeons and Raids as well.
The War Within is going to be a separate expansion that you’ll have to purchase. It’ll run very well on the Mac and there won’t be any significant performance or visual changes as well.
Path of Exile 2
Status: ✅ Confirmed (June 7, 2024)
The free-to-play game that just keeps getting better and better. With the absolute treat that Path of Exile 1 is, we’re getting a massively refreshed iteration of the original game that still guarantees the same core mechanics with just a lot of fleshing out and optimizations. In terms of performance, expect similar if not better, performance. Since the last time we tested Path of Exile 1, the game has only gotten better with every subsequent update, which is why we’re absolutely sure that the next title is going to be an absolute baller when it comes to performance. Oh, and gameplay, that’s going to feel fantastic too.
Earthblade
Status: ⚠️ Likely
Earthblade is an upcoming Metroidvania game that is a narrative-based platformer, exploring the story of a child of Fate, returning back to Earth. You’ll be in a dystopian earth filled with a lot of deadly creatures that you’ll have to combat in this single-player 2D game. This game is from the developers of Celeste, which is a Rosetta 2 game. However, we’re hoping that this game comes out Mac native. However, Celeste wasn’t very graphically intensive in the first place, which meant that it had decent frame rates.
We’re expecting to see a similar story with Earthblade as well, as it doesn’t seem to be the most graphically demanding game, either. So, expect to be able to play this game on the base Macbook M1 with ease.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Status: ✅ Confirmed (may release later than PC)
The sequel to Hollow Knight, commonly referred to as one of the best Indie games of all time – Team Cherry is going to be bringing the franchise over once again to the Mac. Now featuring over 150 enemies with the same core gameplay but a very exciting new store, Hollow Knight: Silksong will definitely be one of the most popular games in 2024.
The developers have been slightly iffy on whether the game will be coming out on the Mac or not. Hollow Knight does have Mac support, but it wasn’t released on launch but rather a few months after. The only proper lead we have regarding whether the game is actually going to come on Mac is this interview right here, Besides that, there’s been no announcement on Steam yet. Because of this, its hard to say whether it’ll be natively supported on the Mac or not. But once again, the game doesn’t seem to be very graphically intensive in the first place, so even the base Airs should be fine.
Skate Story
Status: ✅ Confirmed
Are you a Tony Hawk fan who believes in the concept of an afterlife? Well, Skate Story is here for you. Ollie, kickflip and weave your way through the Underworld as you skate the crap out of demons in this epic adventure game that has you travel through the nine depths of hell to make a statement. The game looks gorgeous. In fact, we’d say that this is one of the most visually appealing art styles we have seen in 2024.
The Mac requirements of the game on Steam indicate that the game should be able to run well on the M1 with 8 GBs of RAM, with an M1 Max preferred as the most optimal way to play it. There’s been no indication of native support yet, but the fact that an M1 is listed as the Minimum requirement would mean that you’ll be able to play the game, akllbeit at 30 FPS on the base Air as well.
Paper Trail
Status: ✅ Confirmed
Just when you thought puzzle games had gotten stale, Paper Trail came around and placed you in a foldable paper world. You play as Paige, an academic who has just left home to pursue her studies. As you fold the world, you start to run into some conundrums, which can also be solved by, you guessed it, folding.
The game is very slice of life, focusing on its core art style and soundtrack more than anything else. It cites its macOS requirements as an Intel i5 2.9 GHz with a GT 750M. This means that you can easily play the game on the newer Apple Silicon chips even if it may not be natively supported due to the meager requirements in the first place.
How promising is 2024 going to be for Mac Gaming?
We definitely expect Mac Gaming to get far more noteworthy releases in 2024 compared to recent years. And we can only hope more developers to be chiming in with their titles as the platform matures even further in 2024!
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