I’m sure you’ve heard about Palworld, the indie game that keeps breaking Steam records daily. This open-world action-adventure game was quickly dismissed as yet another Pokemon ripoff, but given the game’s enormous success so far, Payworld may have what it takes to actually compete with Pokemon.
With over 5 million copies sold, the game is not stopping anytime soon as everyone wants to catch all 100+ Palworld Pals. But you’re probably wondering: Can I run it Mac?
Can You Play Palworld on Mac?
Despite not officially supporting macOS, Palworld can be played on Mac thanks to virtualization tools like CrossOver.
In fact, we downloaded and tested the game and can confirm CrossOver can run Palworld without bugs or significant issues.
Thanks to Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit, many high-profile Windows games can now be played on macOS with decent performance. The beauty of CrossOver is that it takes advantage of Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit to run Windows games with ease, which is exactly the case for Palworld!
Palworld macOS support | |
Native support: | ⛔ No macOS port |
CrossOver: | ✅ Compatible |
Parallels: | ✅ DirectX11 game |
Streaming: | ✅ Compatible |
How to Play Palworld on Mac?
While we’re big fans of playing most of our games natively on Mac, some games are just too fun to ignore, which was the case with Cyberpunk 2077 and Lethal Company. This is why today we’re going to go over exactly how you can play Palworld on Mac, even though the game does not currently feature a macOS version.
Our Preferred Method to play Palworld on Mac M1: CrossOver
The settings we used to test Palworld on the Mac
Mac Used: M1 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro
Method: CrossOver 23 (version 23.7) + Steam Early Access version of the game
Here are some quick benchmarks we’ve recorded ourselves of Palworld running on Mac using CrossOver:
Resolution | Settings | FPS |
1512×982 | Very Low | 25-35 |
720p (Windowed) | Very Low | 30-40 |
Using Very Low settings we got between 25 and 35 FPS using a 1512×982 resolution and between 30 to 40 FPS at 720p resolution.
Clearly, we’re not getting the best performance from the game even though we have a decent M1 Pro. Performance at fullscreen leads to an average FPS of 28, which is extremely choppy. Moving into more open areas (which is most of the game), you’ll see your FPS dip below 26-27, which can be extremely jarring.
If you play the game at 720p, you can expect better results as the game can be played at 30 to 40 FPS. Sadly, Palworld won’t look great at that resolution, so we wouldn’t recommend it (unless you’re simply running around gathering Palworld resources).
On the flip side, the game has no keyboard, mouse, or trackpad issues, even though Steam players have reported some slight glitches with an Xbox controller – CrossOver can handle the Xbox controller just fine.
The Verdict: Should I Play Palworld On My Mac?
You can definitely play Palworld on your Mac, provided you have a powerful machine, like M1 Max, M2 Pro or better. The game may still feel choppy at times, but the experience should be relatively pleasant. For example, friend of the channel, MacProTips, can run Palworld at 50+ FPS on his high-end M3 Max.
⚠️ However, if you have anything older or weaker than an M1 Pro, you should skip this one.
Since the game is currently in Early Access, we hope performance improves over time. Plus, CrossOver has not optimized the game for Mac just yet. Because of this, a future update may also take the FPS a step up further as well. In the meantime, if you seriously want to dive into the Palworld and level up fast, you’ll be better off on a Windows PC.
If you want to test out whether the game works well on your Mac, CrossOver offers a 14-day trial, allowing you to test the game out before you purchase the tool. We cover how to play Windows games using CrossOver here.
Is Palworld Coming to Mac?
Palworld does not seem to be coming to the Mac anytime soon. This is because Palworld is a game developed by a relatively small Japanese studio that has just seen a huge burst of sales. This is Pocket Pair’s first major success, and they probably had no plans, budget or resources to create a native Apple Silicon version for Palworld.
Palworld “Mac” Requirements
As we’ve mentioned, Palwworld has not been released on the Mac just yet. However, the game’s official Windows requirements seem to paint a pretty clear picture of what you can expect from the game on the Mac’s end. They are the following:
Minimum Requirements | |
OS | Windows 10 |
DirectX | Version 11 |
Processor | i5-3570K 3.4 GHz 4 Core |
Memory | 16 GB RAM |
Graphics | GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB) |
Hard Drive | 40 GB available space |
Mac games like Palworld
If you prefer to stick to native Mac games, there are a few survival games that you can check out that somewhat mimic the feel of Palworld. Our top pick will be No Man’s Sky, an excellent survival game that has improved over time.
Palworld native for Mac is out