Steam Will Soon Run Natively on Apple Silicon Macs

Valve has finally released a native version of Steam for Apple Silicon Macs. The new native client is currently available in beta (via 9to5Mac), and it should roll out to the public soon.

It’s been almost five years since Apple released the first M1 MacBook Air, and Apple needed two more years to transition its whole Mac lineup to Apple Silicon. However, Macs currently represent just 1.85% of the Steam userbase, which is lower than Linux (2.69%). It’s no surprise Valve didn’t treat a native Steam client for Apple Silicon Macs as a priority, but it’s finally coming.

As of today, Steam runs fine on Apple Silicon Macs using the company’s Rosetta 2 compatibility layer. However, the new native client is now faster to launch, and navigating the Chromium-based UI also feels smoother.

Apple announced at its WWDC conference earlier this week that it’s planning to scale down its Rosetta 2 translation layer starting with macOS 28. With this macOS release coming in 2028, Rosetta 2 will only work for a subset of apps, including older games that depend on Intel-specific libraries to run on Apple Silicon Macs.

In recent years, Apple has started taking gaming on Macs more seriously, and its recent M3 and M4 chips support cutting-edge features such as hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and mesh shading. We’re now seeing blockbuster games like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows coming day one on macOS, which is certainly encouraging.

With the upcoming macOS 26, which is now available as a developer preview, Apple introduced a new Games app that brings together games from the Mac App Store, Steam, and other stores. There’s also a new Game Overlay where Mac users can adjust system settings, chat with friends, or invite them to play.