How to play VALORANT on Mac

VALORANT is one of the most popular games around the world. With crisp smooth gameplay and an esports scene to boast, it’s no surprise to see thousands of new players everyday. However, not all new players have a Windows PC or laptop. There are also a few with Mac computers who want to play VALORANT. We have some good news and bad news. Here’s how to play VALORANT on Macs.

Players with an Intel chip on their Macbooks can skirt around the VALORANT restrictions and still play the game. However, players who own an M1 or M2 chip Macbook, need a real viable option to play VALORANT on their systems.

The game’s performance on Macbook is quite good although it does quite a bit to boot up the FPS title. Macbooks are traditionally not designed to handle large amounts of gaming, although they do have a decent processing power.

The Windows platform has the largest user base and it especially dominates when it comes to gaming. There are several laptop and PC manufacturers as well as Chip-component brands that target the ever-growing gaming audience.

Here are the steps on how to play VALORANT on a Macbook with an Intel chip. The Intel chip Macbooks allow users to boot up Windows using Apple’s proprietary Bootcamp interface. Boot Camp Assistant is a multi-boot utility included with Apple Inc.'s macOS that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Some users might try to play VALORANT without Bootcamp. But that is almost not possible due to the heavy anti-cheat restrictions by Riot’s Vanguard. Riot’s Vanguard uses invasive permissions to ensure it’s game remains free of cheaters and devoid of unscrupulous elements. 

VALORANT’s inaccessibility on M1 and M2 Macbooks is because of the architectural design of these two chips. Furthermore, due to the ARM architecture, it is also not possible to load VALORANT using Bootcamp, an option for Intel chip users. For reference, Windows uses the x86 architecture compared to the ARM architecture in use by M1/M2 chips. This explains why users with the M1 chips series cannot play VALORANT on their Macbooks.

VALORANT was released in June 2020 and it did not launch on the Mac platform. Even as the majority of the gamers are on Windows or adjacent platforms, Mac users were without any access to VALORANT. While Intel Mac users can try to load Windows and play the game, there seems to be no option yet for M1 or M2 chip users.

Riot employee Brentmeister said in 2021, there are no plans to bring VALORANT to Mac. He suggests to free up more space for Bootcamp on your Macbook or build a Windows PC to access VALORANT.

Over the past two years, VALORANT has added multiple new agents, maps as well as game modes. In 2023, Riot also added the Premier mode, the first step in the Path to Pro. 

Riot has brought League of Legends to Mac, however, working on bringing LoL to Mac and maintaining it there is simply not worth the dev time as per Brentmeister. 

We can only hope VALORANT and other games come to Mac in the future, especially with the increase in sales for Macbook and improved processor speeds. Until then, we have to rely on Bootcamp or just enjoy VALORANT on a Windows PC. 

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest VALORANT news and updates.