Can You Game On Your Mac

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Mac App Store is the simplest way to find and download apps for your Mac. To download apps from the Mac App Store, you need a Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later. Play games on your Mac installed on another computer with Steam In-Home Streaming. By Malcolm Owen Thursday, March 15, 2018, 11:25 am PT (02:25 pm ET) If you want to play games on a Mac that has.

Seemingly overnight, Battle Royale games have become all the rage. Led by Player Unknown Battleground but now surpassed by Fortnite, 100-player last-person-standing games have caught more attention than any other genre before.

Aug 19, 2019 You can now enjoy your favorite iPhone or iPad game on your Mac’s full screen using QuickTime player. Here we will guide you the process, just keep reading. Apr 19, 2016  Ever wanted to play your PS4 on your Mac or PC? Well with firmware 3.50 the Playstation 4 can now do it. Sony changed the game with this new. Mar 18, 2015 Gaming on a Mac may be more restrictive than with a desktop PC running Windows, but if you choose the right Mac hardware, and are willing to pay for it, you’ll be able to play most games without.

In Fortnite, you jet glide to your chosen spot on an island and start hunting other players and gathering gear. Every encounter is critical, and as you get closer to the final 10 players, you can feel the tension rise to incredible levels. No wonder the entire gaming community is so obsessed.

Worried about updating to macOS Catalina? Fortnite is now updated to 64-bit and supports Catalina!

In this review:

Fortnite is everywhere. Even celebrities such as Drake are playing it and breaking records on Twitch.

But can your Mac run the hottest game in the world right now?

Fortnite is so big, we decided to do something big too. Instead of testing one of the finest FPS games for Mac on our usual three machines, we tested it on more than two dozen Macs, thanks to you, our readers.

What’s new with Fortnite on Mac? We first reviewed the game on May 22, 2018, but Fortnite is an online game that is constantly evolving. Season 7 is the latest example, bringing new game modes, features, and gear to the game.

More importantly, Fortnite continues to slowly improve its Mac Performance. You can read more about it below.

MetascoreOne of the most popular games ever, Fortnite is an excellent shooter and a generous free-to-play game.

First things first, is Fortnite worth it?

Fortnite Battle Royale didn’t become one of the top games in the world by chance. Undefeated game for mac. It’s just so much fun to play.

Follow the sounds of gunfire to seek out enemies or hide out and gather resources until the final moments of the game. You decide how to play, but with a gradually narrowing storm center forcing players together, eventually, you’re going to have to fight it out.

It’s easy to understand why both reviewers and gamers love this game. Battle Royale games create tension and excitement like no other genre can and the addition of crafting makes for an even more fun and interesting game.

Add to that well-balanced gameplay, a good variety of weapons, a surprisingly non-toxic community, a generous free-to-play system, and you get the hottest game of the moment.

IGN (9.6/10) loves the game and wrote:

Fortnite’s zany style and unique blend of shooting and building almost never offers anything less than an outstanding time… Fortnite sets itself apart from the crowd by giving you the freedom and tools to express your own personal playstyle.

Most professional reviewers came to similar conclusions, as can be seen from the game’s official Metascore. Interestingly, while millions love the game, online user reviews are usually negative… That’s another internet mystery

Fortnite Mac Requirements

Now, before we dive into our benchmarks and results, you’ll want to make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements.

According to Epic Games’ official website, these are Fortnite Mac requirements:

  • OS: OS 10.12 Sierra
  • Processor: 2.4 GHz Core i3
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Video: Intel HD 4000
  • Hard Drive: 19 GB

If your Mac is from 2012 or newer, you will probably be able to join the party.

At first sight, this seems like an easy game to run, but we all know how wrong system requirements can be…

Into first-person shooters? These are our favorites:

Game★ Best OverallBest for MacBookBest Value
GenreCo-opCompetitiveBattle Royale
Release date201220122017
Metascore
Our rating★★★★★
Full Review
★★★★☆★★★★☆
Full review
Requirements✅ Not Demanding✅ Not Demanding⚠️ Fairly Demanding
Check Price

The Test: Can you play Fortnite on Mac?

We usually test games using our 3 in-house Macs, but because Fortnite is the most popular game to come to MacOS in years, we knew we had to do something bigger.

We started out by testing the game on these three machines:

  • iMac (5K, 27-inch, Late 2014): 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, AMD Radeon R9 M290X (2GB)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016): 2.0 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, Intel Iris Graphics 540 (1.5GB)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2013): 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, Intel Iris 5100 (1.5GB)

On top of that, we launched a huge reader challenge, and with your help, managed to test the game on these models:

  • 27-inch iMacs from 2012, 2014 and 2015
  • 21-inch iMacs from 2013 and 2017
  • 13-inch MacBook Airs from 2014, 2015 and 2016
  • 13-inch MacBook Pros from 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017
  • 15-inch MacBook Pros from 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017
  • Mac Mini from 2012
  • Mac Pro from 2010

Why these machines? We always try to test a game on as many different models as possible. But more than that, we aim to test completely different types of Macs: desktops, laptops, old and new. The aim is to give you a flavor of how the game will run on different models. Because we have a lot of results, we decided to separate them into three different categories:

  • High-end Macs (machines with powerful graphics cards)
  • Recent entry-level Macs (recent machines that do not have powerful graphics)
  • Older Macs (machines that are either recent or have powerful graphics)

Finally, these are the in-game settings we used:

  • 1280×800 or equivalent resolution
  • 100% 3D resolution
  • Low Quality Preset
  • VSync: Off

We tested the game using Count It, our in-house Mac FPS counter tool, playing a normal Solo battle royale game for around 5 minutes.

The Results: Mac performance was poor

As mentioned before, the game has changed a lot in the past few months, especially on Mac.

We knew we had to test the game again and can confirm that as of now, January 2019, Fornite on Mac runs much better than it did back in March 2018.

On our three machines, we recorded the following results:

The raw figures are not any higher compared to our previous results, but the devil is in the details.

The game runs much more stable now. The ridiculous frame drops that plagued the game (especially during those first minutes of each match) are long gone. The improvement is noticeable on all three machines.

You can find every single one of our “older” results submitted by the community below. Just keep in mind that those machines wouldn’t run the game any faster today but overall stability would be higher:

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.

If you have a high-end machine with a fast dedicated graphics (like an iMac or 15-inch MacBook Pro), you’ll be able to run the game just fine.

In fact, if you have a high-end Mac, you can safely increase settings to the Medium Preset. That will result in good performance and much better-looking graphics.

Can you play Fortnite on a MacBook Pro?

But what if you, like most Mac users out there, have a 13-inch MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air, will you be able to play and enjoy Fortnite on Mac? According to our data, you can if you have a very recent model.

Fortnite officially supports the Intel HD Graphics 4000 or better. As the last model to use it is from 2013, all recent MacBook Pros should be able to run Fortnite just fine. In theory.

And our results confirmed that theory:

The game runs great on most machines, with smooth and fast FPS levels. But only the higher-end models with dedicated graphics cards can handle settings higher than Medium. Using our 2016 13-inch MBP, we tested the following settings:

  • 1280×800 and Low settings: 43.9 FPS
  • 1280×800 and Medium settings: 22.1 FPS

Going from Low to Medium settings requires some horsepower but the graphical improvements are significant. We definitely recommend using Medium settings if your machine can handle it and still run at 40 FPS or better.

This is a point where we have to insist. Fortnite is a competitive shooter where stutters can be a disaster. You need the most fluid experience possible to have a chance to win a face-off.

Can my Mac run Fortnite?

If you’re reading this, that is probably the only question you care about right now. But as always, the answer is never straightforward: It depends.

With a little luck, we tested a machine very similar to yours and in that case, you only have to see the results. If the game runs at 40 FPS or more, you’re good to go. If not, you’ll have to skip Fortnite, at least for the time being.

From the 20+ results we received, we can conclude that:

  • Fornite on MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac Pro: The game will run fine on machines from 2016 onwards.
  • Fornite on MacBook Air or Mac Mini: Performance will be too limited to actually enjoy the game
  • Fortnite on older Macs: Machines from 2015 or older won’t be able to run it unless they have a powerful dedicated graphics card.

My advice? Fortnite for Mac is free. If you really want to test it, download it and see for yourself if your Mac can run it. Even if it can’t, it won’t cost you a dime to try!

How to run Fortnite on Mac?

If your Mac can barely run Fortnite (below 35-40) on Low settings, there is one last thing you can try…

You can always reduce 3D resolution to 75% or less. That will result in a significant performance improvement but that comes at a cost. Using our 2013 13-inch MBP, we can see big improvements:

  • 1280×800, Low settings, 100% 3D resolution: 23 FPS
  • 1280×800, Low settings, 66% 3D resolution: 35.2 FPS

With the 3D resolution set to 66%, our 2013 MBP runs the game 40% faster. Even better, it brings us closer to much more acceptable FPS.

Reducing the 3D resolution obviously hurts the game’s looks. I was prepared to recommend against lowering 3D resolution because of how blocky and ugly the game looked, but in reality, I forgot all about it once I started tracking another player. It was glorious and fun.

Deciding how bad 66% 3D resolution looks or whether it is acceptable will be up to you.

I wouldn’t recommend going lower than 66% though because at some point gameplay will suffer too. Can you really be effective if you can’t differentiate faraway enemies from trees?

The best Fortnite Mac settings for performance

If you’re struggling with performance, you can try the following settings. These should increase the game’s FPS at least a little:

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  • Fullscreen mode
  • Set frame rate limit to 30 (to decrease those big frame rate drops)
  • Quality: Low
  • V-sync off
  • Reduce the 3D resolution setting

Don’t expect huge improvements, but this could provide those extra 5 FPS to make Fornite playable on your Mac. The biggest improvements come from reducing the 3D resolution but visual fidelity will suffer a lot…

The best Fortnite Mac settings for graphics fidelity

If you have a high-end Mac and want the game to look great, you can either increase the settings or resolution.

As an example, these tests were all performed on our high-end 2014 27-inch iMac:

  • 1344×756 resolution and Low settings: 104.7 FPS
  • 1344×756 resolution and Medium settings: 71.9 FPS
  • 1344×756 resolution and High settings: 52.3 FPS
  • 1344×756 resolution and Epic settings: 38.5 FPS

Going from Low to Medium reduces FPS by 31% but the game looks much better with added shadow effects and details. On the other hand, going from High to Epic reduces FPS by 26% but the graphics improvement is barely noticeable.

As always, I recommend avoiding the Epic, Extreme or Max settings and increase the resolution instead. Using that same iMac, increasing the resolution or going from Medium to High settings generates a similar FPS loss the higher resolution looks much better:

  • 1344×756 resolution and Medium settings: 71.9 FPS
  • 1920×1080 resolution and Medium settings: 51.9 FPS
  • 1344×756 resolution and High settings: 52.3 FPS
  • 1344×756 resolution and Epic settings: 38.5 FPS

But as tempted as you are to increase the settings even higher, remember that speed is more important than looks in a game like Fortnite. You’ll have a much better experience on Medium settings and 70 FPS than Epic settings and 38 FPS.

PS: These are our favorite accessories for playing/testing games on Mac!

Game★ Best MouseBest ControllerBest eGPU
Why we love it?The G502 is Logitech's most accurate gaming mouse yet. Plus, it has a plethora of buttons and a killer design.The official PS4 controller just works on Mac. It's wireless, it's precise, it has an excellent grip and it's durable.The Razer Core X turns your MacBook or Mac Mini into a killer gaming machine by adding external graphics support.
Mac compatible?
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74 Amazon reviews

PriceFrom $56From $39.99From $299.99
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Download Fortnite for Mac

Want to give it a try? After all, this is an excellent free-to-play game that doesn’t hide its best content behind paid walls or micro-transactions. That alone is reason enough to give it a try and see how much you like it:

MetascoreOne of the most popular games ever, Fortnite is an excellent shooter and a generous free-to-play game.
Free-to-Play

Fortnite Mac Review

It’s not surprising Fortnite is a demanding game. After all, it looks great and takes place in huge environments filled with trees and buildings. Yet playing Fortnite on Mac was nearly impossible for months. Gladly, Fortnite on Mac has improved a lot and now runs fast enough for most.

Editor's Rating:
3.5

Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission (this is how we pay the bills). This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

With all of the recent happenings, you may be stuck at home or even working from home much more now, and with that eventually comes boredom. I mean, you have nowhere to go and can't hang out with most people in person for the time being, so what can you do? If you live with others in your home, whether they're family or roommates, then you can try playing some party games together to pass the time. And if you're by yourself, it may be worth looking into something like an MMORPG or something similar. Here are some of our favorites.

Quiplash

Source: Jackbox Games, Inc.

Quiplash comes from the folks behind the popular YOU DON'T KNOW JACK games, as well as Fibbage and Drawful, so you know it's going to be a good time.

Can You Game On A Mac

The goal of Quiplash is to pit your answer to questions with others in a battle of supremacy for cleverness or comedic gold. Other players in the audience will vote for their favorite answer, and the winner gets the point. There are no rules, and there are no correct answers - just whatever you want!

Quiplash

Answer questions with whatever you want, and try to be more clever or funny than your opponent. Anything goes!

Source: Jackbox Games, Inc.

When it comes to party games, it's hard to beat the Jackbox Party Packs. The latest in the series is Jackbox Party Pack 6, but there are five more before it, and each one is worth picking up since they have an assortment of different party games.

What makes The Jackbox Party Pack games so popular is the fact that many people can join in (some games support up to 10 participants) and play together, whether it's locally in the same room or even through a video conference call. The only thing each player who wants to participate needs is their own phone, tablet, or even computer. It's perfect for our stay-at-home time.

You can find all previous Jackbox Party Packs from the Jackbox Games website, along with many of the company's other party games.

The Jackbox Party Pack 6

The Jackbox Party Pack 6 includes Trivia Murder Party 2, Dictionarium, Push The Button, Joke Boat, and Role Models.

Source: Jackbox Games, Inc.

If you have played The Jackbox Party Pack, then you may be familiar with Fibbage XL. This is the standalone version of the game, which is cheaper than purchasing one of the Party Packs. Plus, if you love Fibbage, then this could be all you want!

Fibbage XL is a bluffing party game that can only be played in local multiplayer. The goal is to fool your friends with lies, while avoiding theirs and finding the outrageous truth. If you can fool everyone else into thinking your lie is the truth, then you'll rack up those points! Just make sure you don't pick an opponent's bluff. This game is best suited for 2-8 players.

Fibbage XL

Come up with a lie and fool your opponents into thinking it's true.

Source: Blizzard

If you're toughing it out on your own, then a party game just doesn't really make sense. But you could check out an MMORPG like the highly popular World of Warcraft from Blizzard, no Warcraft experience necessary. You can try the game for free until you hit level 20. In WoW, you can choose between two factions and select from a handful of different races and hero classes to create your character. Then you'll embark on taking up quests from NPCs for experience and advancing the story, battle bosses in dungeons and raids, and you can even join guilds to play with other people.

Once your trial is up, you'll need to add game time or subscribe for $15 a month (it's slightly cheaper if you buy in three or six month increments at a time).

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPGs out there. Start a trial and escape reality.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Don't want to hop on the WoW bandwagon or just don't want to end up with another subscription fee? Then you should try Diablo 3 instead. I personally have put hundreds of hours into Diablo 3 across multiple platforms (Mac, PS4, and Nintendo Switch) since the game originally came out because I absolutely love it that much.

In Diablo 3: Eternal Collection, you can pick from seven different hero classes: Barbarian, Monk, Demon Hunter, Sorcerer, Witch Doctor, Crusader, and Necromancer (the last two are from the DLC, which is included with Eternal Collection). Each character has a different play style, so they're all unique in their own ways. You can choose to go through the Campaign mode (recommended for first time players), or even do Adventure mode for the loot grind. There are also Seasons with unique rewards to obtain, but you have to start fresh each season. Every hero has many skills and abilities to unlock as you level them up to 70, and the loot grind is endless. And there's nothing more satisfying than ripping through a horde of demons and monsters and watching a new Legendary weapon or armor drop.

Diablo 3 is one of my favorite games to play to pass time, and you can also play with up to three other people at once. So share the dungeon crawling fun! There is a free trial available.

Diablo 3: Eternal Collection

Slay hordes of demons with seven different heroes as you embark on a journey for perfect loot.

Source: Studio MDHR

Looking for some retro run-and-gun game to play with someone else? Try Cuphead, the hard-as-nails game that's finally available on Mac.

This game is hard and heavily focuses on boss battles, so you've been warned. It's visually and audibly inspired by the cartoons of the 1930s, which explains the unique style and form. Each level features a unique world and new boss to tackle, and there are plenty of weapons, super moves, and secrets to find. The game has local co-op, so grab a friend and team up.

Cuphead

Cuphead is one of the most challenging run-and-gun games of its time. Grab a friend and enjoy local co-op together.

Get your game on

We're all spending a lot of time at home these days, so there's no better time to try out a new game with family and friends. These are just a few of our favorites that you can play with others on your Mac. Did we miss your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Best Free Games For Mac

Concepts everywhere

Another day, another iPhone 12 Pro concept. How much would you pay?

Can You Game On Your Mac Free

If reports are accurate we might be waiting a little while longer than normal for iPhone 12 Pro. But would you care if it looked like this?