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The best Nintendo 3DS emulators for PC and Mac
March 31, 2025
The Nintendo 3DS was a super popular console. It sold over 75 million units during its run and was home to some iconic titles. Those include several Pokemon games, the Etrian Odyssey series, Kid Icarus, Radiant Historia, and various Mario, Zelda, and Kirby games. The handheld system was discontinued in September 2020, and the Nintendo eShop closed in March 2023. Thus, emulation is the only way to enjoy some of these old favorites. To that end, here are the best Nintendo 3DS emulators for PC and Mac.
Before we start, it’s worth pointing out that we have excluded a few options from our list due to a lack of active development or untrustworthy development practices. Now that Citra has been shut down, there are only a few good Nintendo 3DS emulators on PC and Mac and one of those still uses the final build of Citra.
The best Nintendo 3DS emulators for Mac and PC
RetroArch
RetroArch is an excellent all-in-one emulator that includes Nintendo 3DS support via its Citra core.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS (Downloads)
What we like:
- It’s available everywhere.
- It uses Citra as its core, although it’s no longer actively supported.
- You can play a variety of other consoles with RetroArch, making it a good all-in-one option.
- There are enough configuration options to work for most people.
What we don’t like:
- The setup has a learning curve.
- The Citra core is no longer under actively development.
RetroArch is the best all-in-one emulator on most platforms. It’s one of our favorite emulators on Android, and an easy recommendation for PC, Mac, Linux, and iOS users too since it can do Nintendo 3DS games as well as dozens of other consoles. Setting it up is a bit of a pain. You have to download the core, load the core, load the game, and then you can play it or configure your experience from there. It’s not bad at all once you get used to it, but it may be a bit intimidating for people who are new to the emulator experience.
RetroArch uses cores to play games. Think of each core as a console that you can load in like a plugin. Thus, you only have to download the cores you want for the consoles you’re interested in. The 3DS core is the open-source Citra emulator, but the Citra developer was shut down in early 2024 after legal action from Nintendo. That means that it’s no longer in active development, but it still has good performance and game support.
Azahar Emulator
The two best Citra forks combined into one.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Windows, Android, macOS, and Linux (Downloads)
What we like:
- Easy to use.
- Great feature set that’s still growing.
- Ability to download games you’ve purchased.
- Great compatibility.
What we don’t like:
- Early in the development cycle, with many bugs to be squished.
- Requires renaming of ROMs.
Hot off the press, Azahar emulator is the next best hope for Nintendo 3DS emulation now that Citra has shut down. Based on the now-defunct Citra, it merges Lime3DS and PabloMK7’s Citra fork into a new emulator with a combined feature set. Now that the initial release is available, it has replaced Lime3DS on the Play Store.
With the original team behind Citra no longer working on the project, it’s only a matter of time before Azahar surpasses it in compatibility. The two existing forks already had things like online play and Amiibo support, and the team has also teased the ability to re-download purchased eShop titles, which is a great way to sidestep outright piracy.
The Azahar 3DS emulator has a few other anti-piracy measures, including dropping support for the .3ds filetype. The developers claim that its history is tied to legally questionable practices, which is why it only supports the .cci filetype. Granted, all you need to do is rename your existing ROMs, but it’s an extra step that other emulators don’t have. Does that mean it avoid the same fate as Citra? Only time will tell.
Panda3DS
A Nintendo 3DS emulator that’s still cooking.
- Pricing: Free
- Platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux (Downloads)
What we like:
- Easy to use and configure.
- Works on PC, Mac, Android, and Linux.
- Actively developed.
What we don’t like:
- Early in the development cycle, with many bugs to be squished.
- Limited compatibility.
While Azahar has now taken the crown as the best Citra fork, there’s one more Nintendo 3DS emulator that’s worth checking out. We’ll be honest here, it’s still early in development and things are still rough around the edges. Some games have graphical errors and others don’t load at all. We also found audio issues on a number of titles.
Still, if the other two above aren’t doing it for you, Panda3DS is your best option. It’s still in active development so hopefully some of the rough edges are smoothed out over time.
If you’re looking to game on mobile, here is our list of the best Nintendo 3DS emulators for Android.