Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is Coming to macOS on May 28

The cult-classic real-time strategy game Age of Empires II will be making its comeback on Mac later this month. Indeed, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will be released on macOS on May 28, nearly 25 years after the release of the original game on Mac OS X in October 2001.

I had to double-check that, but the original Age of Empires trilogy and the Age of Mythology spin-off were all released on Mac back in the day. World’s Edge, the new studio overseeing the revival of the franchise, had already remastered these four games on PC, and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, probably the most popular game in the series, was ported to Xbox and PS5 consoles in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

“Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition comes complete with razor-sharp 4K visuals, a fully remastered soundtrack, and includes three expansions with the base game: Lords of the West, Dynasties of India, and Dawn of the Dukes. Newcomers to the series and returning veterans alike can look forward to all the fast-paced base-building and warfare that made this game a classic, given new life over two decades of refinement and additional content,” the official announcement reads.

The macOS version of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will only be available on Apple Silicon Macs, and it will work on models with an M1 chip or newer, as well as the new MacBook Neo with its A18 Pro chip. The Mac version of the game will first come to Steam on May 28, with a Mac App Store version coming later this year.

It’s worth noting that Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will be the first game that Microsoft releases on macOS in five years. The last one was Psychonauts 2 from Double Fine Productions back in 2021, a studio that Microsoft had acquired two years earlier.

Even though Mac gamers accounted for just 2.01% of the userbase on Steam in April 2026, there’s certainly been more high-profile games coming on macOS in recent years thanks to Apple’s powerful M-series chips and new developer tools like the Game Porting Toolkit. Blockbuster titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, or Resident Evil 4 Remake are all available on macOS, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft continues porting more of its games to the platform. I think that Blizzard games like Diablo II: Resurrected and Diablo IV could be good candidates as the franchise already has a history on Mac.