How to play Valorant on Mac

Riot’s Valorant remains one of the most popular multiplayer FPS games, but popularity doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to play something on a Mac — Apple has long treated gaming as a secondary priority, even on mobile. In fact Valorant seems to be a major casualty of this policy, as we’ll explain below.

Can you play Valorant on Mac?

Yes, you can. There isn’t a native Mac port however, which is unfortunately pretty common with triple-A game releases. Until recently, porting to a Mac required significant time and resources, which made it a tough sell for developers given the relatively small Mac gaming audience. That of course represents a Catch-22 — the Mac audience can’t grow if there aren’t games to play.

How to play Valorant on an Intel-based Mac

If you still have an Intel-based Mac, you can run Valorant using Boot Camp. Bear in mind that Boot Camp is no longer included with macOS as of Big Sur (11), that you’ll need your own copy of Windows, and that you’ll have to meet the game’s minimum PC requirements. Those include an Intel Core Duo E8400 or better, and at least Intel HD 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 200 graphics. The last generation of Intel Macs should exceed those specs.

If it’s not already in place, here’s how to install Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp:

1. On your Mac, log in as an administrator, close all apps, and log out any other users.
2. Update your Mac as much as you can without breaking Boot Camp. Click on the Apple menu, then go to System Settings > General > Software Update. The system will tell you if there are available updates. Follow instructions to install them.
3. With that done, go to Applications > Utilities, and launch the Boot Camp Assistant.
4. Hit Continue, and the tool will check for available disk space, remove old Time Machine snapshots, and more. This process can take a while, so be patient.
5. You’ll get instructions to partition disk space for Windows. Make your selections, choose your Windows ISO image, then click on Install.
6. The Windows installer will launch. Follow instructions to set up the OS.
7. Your Mac will restart when finished. Set up Windows, and drivers should start installing automatically. Continue following onscreen instructions.

Once you’re settled at the Windows desktop, download and install the Epic Games Launcher and search for Valorant. The game is a free download, since it’s supported entirely by in-app purchases.

Can you play Valorant on an M-series Mac?

No. Boot Camp doesn’t support M-series processors, and due to anti-cheat mechanisms, the game won’t work with virtual machine or “container” tools like Parallels and CrossOver. It can’t even be streamed via cloud gaming services, despite the fact that those should be immune to cheating.

How do I know if my Mac is Intel or M-series?

If your Mac was sold as using “Apple Silicon,” that’s an M-series Mac. The M refers to Apple’s custom-designed chips, such as the M1, M2, and upcoming M3.

The following Macs are all M-series models:

• MacBook Pro (2021 or later, plus 2020’s 13-inch M1 model)
• MacBook Air (2022 or later, plus 2020’s M1 model)
• iMac (2021 or later)
• Mac mini (2020 or later)
• Mac Studio
• Mac Pro (2023 or later)

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