19 MUST PLAY games for the M1 MacBook Air

[@Andytizer]

Try the new CleanMyMac for free for 7 days using my link clnmy.com/AndrewTsai

[@MinecraftSMP-Q5R]

Please play Minecraft or battlefield or call of duty or pubg game FPS test good luck have a peace life ❤❤🎉🎉

[@srivatsan1985]

Hey Andrew i am planning to buy a MacBook Air and i am concerned about the blank space above and below the video in full screen mode (for eg @04:00). I noticed the same issue at the demo piece at the local store too.. is there anyway to make it more full screen?

[@nintendoever]

If you do not have a gaming PC or console, but have an Apple Silicon Mac, give it a shot. I did it and found that more than 90% of my steam library runs on Crossover. Last year i ditched my Mid range PC and upgraded to a M2 Max 38 core and I can even do some 1440p or 4k gaming.

[@peterkilian9100]

3000+ dollars for the ability to MAYBE play 1440p-4k is unbelievably sad to me

[@peterkilian9100]

I could make a 4k setup for 3000 including peripherals and monitor.

[@erikludwig5515]

@@peterkilian9100 don't be silly. The scenario is almost never buying a MacBook to game. A lot of us use a $3-4000 MacBook already as a primary device and would like the option of playing games without having to spend another $3000 on something to game.

[@peterkilian9100]

@@erikludwig5515 If you want to game as a hobby, you literally could not do worse than macOS. In that “scenario”, a MacBook makes no sense. The only people that genuinely buy a MacBook for 4k are either those who don’t care for games or morons. There is no middle ground, yet.

[@igormel0]

​@@erikludwig5515 exactly!!

[@Kowalski_J]

Here are few more games to try on Mac: - Borderlands 2 - Disco Elysium (runs really great) - Deus Ex: making Divided - Eve Online (perfectly smooth experience) - World of Warcraft (is a nice optimized one) - Kerbal Space Program - Arma 3 - Path of Exile - Pillars of Eternity 1-2 - Snowunner - X-Plane 12 - Life is Strange - Sleeping Dogs - Song of Conquest - Planetary Annihilation - Don't Starve Together - Bomber Crew - Desperados 3 - American Truck Simulator - Euro Truck Simulator - Terraria - Surviving Mars - Dota 2 - League of Legends - Company of Heroes 2 - Albion Online - Tabletop Simulator - Void Bastards - War Thunder - World of Tanks - World of Warships - Wargame: Red Dragon - Fishing Planet

[@chrisaibet]

for your own mental health, don’t play League of Legends

[@Kishohar746]

Suggest me some free games ❤️

[@Kishohar746]

I have recently bought a mac

[@pawewieliczko4037]

how is dota2? stable 60fps on low settings?

[@weberyan2349]

We can add prison architect and EU4. Just remind you need to write little code which you can find easily for give access to Paradox launcher

[@099watcher]

Few more games you can try... 1) Tomb Raider 2) Rise of the Tomb Raider. 3) Batman: Arkham City 4) Inside 5) Limbo 6) Undertale 7) Civilization 6 8) Deus Ex 9) Bioshock 1 & 2 10) The Witcher 1 & 2 11) Undertale 12) Ori and the Blind Forest

[@apoplexiamusic]

Also Batman Arkham Knight

[@ejlorbz]

don't forget Undertale!

[@marekmecir5822]

Also Insurgency (2014) which show up as unsupported on Steam but runs perfectly,especially the multiplayer

[@White_lister]

also try undertale!

[@nintendoever]

I own most of them and they work great.

[@robhulson]

Longtime Apple user (late 90's), and Apple employee from 2006-2016. This past year I bought a custom built gaming PC for my family room, but I'm still highly interested in what I could do with my M1 MacBook Air (16GB, thankfully). To date I've been using Steam Link with an 8BitDo controller to play Helldivers 2 in my room in bed after the kids are down. Discord streams the gameplay. Lots of fun this way. Thanks for putting this together, Andrew.

[@JorisJorisJorisJoris]

Massive props for making videos about the M1!

[@AlexanderLindo]

Not really a gamer here, but ever since owning the M1 MacBook Air, I had purchased Grid Legends and Lies of P. In your video entitled "30 BEST Mac Games on Steam!" you called Lies of P one of the best games of 2023. I am curious to hear your recommendation as it pertains to optimal settings for playback of this game on the M1 MacBook Air.

[@Andytizer]

Yes Lies of P is definitely one of the best games to play on M1 MacBook Air, should've included it if I had more time :).

[@codex3144]

Wonderful list! Bro is a real one for including hollow knight🙏

[@ksds9385]

YES I thought the exact same thing! W game, I recommend it to literally everyone

[@adolfkudlinski]

Dying Light is a MUST PLAY on these machines :)

[@4reinersplug959]

I needed this!. You gained a follow

[@jayeworley7461]

loving the videos dude!

[@isra_dlg]

Here's my Steam library of games that run great: My favorites: 1-Company of heroes 2 2- DAVE THE DIVER, it's great! 3-Disco Elysium, it's great! 4-Divinity Original Sin 5- Hades 6- Civilization VI 7-Slay the Spire 8- XCOM 2 Other Games: 1- Age of Wonders: Planetfall (found it boring, not played it much) 2- The binding of Isaac; Rebirth (great game, specially with a controller). 3- Bloons TD6, great game for casual fun! 4- Dead cells (great game, specially with a controller). 5- Desperados III (great reviews, haven't played it ) 6- Don't Starve, great game! 7- Frostpunk is a great game but fps drops a bit sometimes 8- INSCRYPTION, just great! 9- SLEEPING DOGS, great gta-like game with great graphics and stable performance. My point being, MacOs has some native games running great in steam.

[@Takuma_Sakazaki]

Wonderful list. M1 is so awesome.

[@expensivebuddah]

Waiting for that Ryu tutorial vid. Andrew never misses!!!🔥🔥🔥

[@aymanhassan8178]

For sparking Zero you can set frame limiter in engine.ini file, that way you will eliminate the slowdowns

[@mouse23620]

I would like to see the following CAD applications come to mac like solidworks and inventor.

[@nataliasilveira8514]

Hi, as an Imac M3 8GB this video is really useful too. Maybe I will check my Steam library! Thanks!

[@karnnypicture6457]

such an amazing machine

[@Neosyass]

No it's not? For the same price you have a Windows computer that runs those games better, if you are a gamer there's no reason to buy a Mac?

[@jameswilkins3813]

@@Neosyass Clearly ignoring a lot of context. Who says he thinks it's amazing that it can run those games, or more that it can do all this on 3 year old hardware that's still incredibly battery efficient. Dunno why there's always one of you in the comments. As if we've never seen your train of thought before, lol.

[@karnnypicture6457]

@@Neosyass find me a light weight, fanless, long battery life laptop that can game like MBA. I agree with windows PC, i have 14” M1 Pro MacBook pro and gaming PC too

[@chalbahe_tsuplado]

@Neosyass 🔥

[@jo.a7189]

Great video man ❤ But you forgot about -Resident evil village -Rise of the tomb raider -Shadow of the tomb raider -

[@acizko92]

I can´t wait for M4 Mac mini with 16 gb ram

[@luitchix3]

I recommend Diablo 3 for mac if you havent tried it, runs really really good no issues on low settings

[@tinycontractor]

Surprisingly, Titanfall 2 runs great on mac through CrossOver(tested on m3 max), both the campaign and multi-player.

[@samuelhuesmann]

Thanks!

[@VK-pl1nd]

thank you :)

[@cloudGGs]

Great video

[@drzeissler]

excellent video !

[@isra_dlg]

Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition runs great and it’s hours of fun (and crafting) ! Give it a try

[@GHalfa]

Have you, by any chance, tested these games in 720p and 1440p, instead of only 1080p? It would be interesting to see in which circumstances dropping to 720p can lock the fps at 60 (or maybe which games you could run at 1440p at 30 fps)

[@markaznar1979]

Romancing saga 2 remake, Metaphor Refantazio, and the upcoming Expedition 33 ate all I want! None of the three can be played natively on macOS!

[@aarijimam832]

I don't know why no one is mentioning Lies of P, its one of the best games ever made and has a native port so I assume it should work on the base M1. I have a M1 Pro so cant say.

[@SC-sd4nr]

Donkey Kong tropical freeze on ryujinx is probably the best game I’ve played on my m1 mba. Runs perfectly

[@nintendoever]

It runs even greater on Cemu (the wii U version).

[@SC-sd4nr]

@@nintendoever it runs above 60fps?

[@nintendoever]

@@SC-sd4nr On M2 Macbook Air yes.

[@henryco6333]

You can also play warframe on mac m1! You can play it with 40-60 fps on free roam but 60-70 on missions!!!

[@AMZtechofficial]

Thanks for this list! I'm interested in the graphics quality of these games on the M1 MacBook Air. Which ones surprised you in terms of visual fidelity?

[@RishabhKumarRoy]

2:59 which app to see the temp?

[@miloplacas]

thanks!

[@goobfilmcast4239]

...you should have considered adding The base M1 iMac and Mac Mini in your title......if it runs on the base M1 MBA, it will run even more efficiency on those due to better cooling,

[@Laura.K.]

Look if you're desperate enough you can do whatever you want, I'm playing BG3 on M1 2020 Macbook air ... base model with 8gb of RAM... no active cooling so I have to have external cooling for it... it is like 30 fps when you're lucky, animatics take ages to load.... BUT it is playable... that being said I played Tomb Raider 2013 rebooted game on it and it's like 60 fps.... it is so okay

[@marc-andrevoyer9973]

No Man's Sky has multiple rendering issues specifically on macOS since the worlds update a few months ago (very distracting full-screen glare, settings being stuck on low despite the UI showing otherwise, missing tessellation, etc.) so I would not recommend that one on macOS sadly nowadays.

[@stingus]

Hey, what about Disco Elysium? It is perfectly playable on a base M1 MBA

[@isra_dlg]

Yes it is !

[@Slavvvcom]

And it's one of the best RPG ever made!

[@Leo-Chiu]

I noticed that Celeste starts experiencing serious frame rate drop issues on my M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM after running for a short while, making it very hard to control, especially since the game needs to react immediately. I wonder if anyone else has encountered this problem. I am curious about whether it has something to do with the Rosetta 2 transition layer. Amazing video, btw!

[@nintendoever]

It can be that you have background apps running, or maybe using Parallels desktop, or your system is throttling due to temperature. Also, try updading to macOS 15 Sequoia if you are on older os versions.

[@Leo-Chiu]

​@@nintendoeverUpdating the OS actually works! Thank you so much~

[@punyamalhotra9941]

How much better is M2 base model than the M1? Like if the M1 runs sparking zero at 50% resolution how much would i have to scale for M2 air base?

[@Andytizer]

Approximately 25% better.

[@BotDude_111]

whats the best way to install Overwatch 2 on the M1 Macbook air? Should you still use CXPatcher with Crossover?

[@mikehawk7307]

I will stick to my actual gaming PC thank you. And I got it for $800 and not $1000, when the M1 Mac came out.

[@schmerzensgeld7294]

More content for the m1 please

[@EvgeniiBarkovsky]

thanks

[@borayeniay2282]

Thank you, just when I was wonderimg if I can play OW2 on M1Air. I think I might have to go with a used M1PRO. 120hz screen will also be nice.

[@Andytizer]

M1 Pro will run it substantially better on the base M1!

[@CanonPaulHamilton]

Can you please link a video on how to play Switch games on the Mac? TIA.

[@pencilcheck]

oh nice!

[@fineman2712]

it heats up so much even on my new air m1

[@haroldvillegas17]

How did you manage to play sparking zero?

[@MysticalLibraries]

Factorio too!

[@TheSuperDuperPomperoopa]

The lovely sponsor block extension for safari and chrome removed the useless sponsor messages in this video

[@mr.meowgi9444]

Witcher 3 is also another one I played the sh** out of on my MacAir M1 through Whisky. 1080p default low settings, almost 50 fps throughout (Frame rates do drop in highly populated areas like Novigrad tho)

[@borayeniay2282]

By the way, can you also compare M1 Max 14", M2 Pro 14" and M3 14" with 16GB in terms of gaming. They all have similar price points. I know it is a lot :))

[@Posidaon]

Civilization 5, playing it on 2015 Air!😄

[@MrNono6400]

I tried Parallel on my Macbook Pro M2 Max and I found out there's a huge amount of audio delay on every game. Has anyone encountered the same issue??

[@FenoLP]

i wonder which one would be the best OS version for an MBA m1 8gb? Im still on monterey and im not sure if I should still update it. Can someone help?

[@xd14lb35]

could i use an external type c ssd to install like gta5? base m1 mini with 256gb is nothing considering macOs partitions too

[@lasmaa0220]

Hello, I wanted to ask about Honor of Kings (how to control heroes) when playing it on Macbook Air M3? Thank you!

[@xkrismiles]

Can you play project zombie on MacBook Air M1?

[@SatvikSharma03]

can we play warzone on mac air 2 pro? if yes then can someone tell me how in detail or just provide me the link to do it like a tutorial.

[@flappospammo]

Do you think they will bring out an actual console next week ?

[@nintendoever]

Improbable but not impossible. If it hapens one day, it will be a version of apple TV, which already is a console in a way.

[@chrisaibet]

How you get to play Overwatch 2?, I tried running it through steam on crossover but runs like trash

[@touhidislambadhon8497]

Do I have to pay for the games or emulator or any 3rd party software? If it is free I might buy M1 air base version

[@Jittery16]

Hi Andrew a couple videos back you made a video about ps3 emulation and you showed skate 3 could you show us how to mod it to get custom parks. Huge help thank you

[@theodore.rollet]

Could you make a video about the settings you use on your mac? Metro exodus (bought on steam if that makes any difference) is virtually unplayable on my base M2 macbook air, even on low game settings.

[@deepansharya1111]

Spiderman remastered works fine too

[@farzadkazazlo4338]

do you know if mafia 3 and gang beast run well on MacBook Air m1?

[@stanleychen3298]

Which version of Ryujinx did you use to play RDR? Mine seems to randomly freeze and I have to restart. I have M2 Air with 16GB RAM

[@frenzy370]

Can you try M3 pro, I'm thinking of getting that

[@Qwerty-w8g6i]

Hello, are there any solutions to eliminate overheating on air besides energy saving?

[@Andytizer]

Raise the laptop off the table, point a fan at the machine, lower graphics settings, cap framerate or use Vsync.

[@vesidimitrov7550]

how to play these games where to look for them ??

[@joaoldc9195]

Baying only through apple store?

[@rajamuhdfadhli231]

Which emulator did u use for metro exodus? I tried via crossover and alot of stuttering and lagging. Im using M2 pro though. Should be better than the M1 air.

[@Johnathan-_-]

I have a problem. when I open the game at steam "cities skylines" on my m1 16G Macbook air, it won't run successfully, it will crash.

[@irensaga561]

I've enjoyed Alien Isolation on my MacBook.

[@SelectaZero]

If you can play GTA offline despite the anti-cheat thing then can you play any football game like EA FC 25? I'm not interested in playing online. Just wanted to play career mode (which is offline). Have you heard about anyone getting it to work? I have a m2 air 16 RAM with the 10 core GPU

[@Sierra_43]

In games have throttle after 30 min game?

[@z-end5551]

how's war thunder for the m1 base model as it runs natively I think?

[@ksds9385]

War thunder runs well. It's playable, give it a try.

[@전유현-l7x]

Tbh I need a windows laptop or pc to play windows games. Mac is perfectly adequate to emulate switch games and ps vita games tho.

[@전유현-l7x]

By windows games I mean online window games.

[@Walliam-hw3dp]

What app are you using to see all the stats?

[@Andytizer]

Metal HUD FPS counter tutorial for Mac: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5Oxen1uZ5WDptUsi=HHzpUSqkCsxumS3X

[@Walliam-hw3dp]

@@Andytizer Thank you so much!

[@ashm3697]

it's frankly unbelievable that as big as apple is, and as powerful as their machines are, it's still such a pain to have a good gaming experience comparable to PC

[@prankul_v]

I have the death stranding on epic games launcher, will it run smoothly if i run through heroic or mythic launcher?

[@Andytizer]

No you need the native version on the App Store.

[@LooK253]

How is that FPS counter called?

[@jahivan]

settings (in game) and crossover for DB sparking zero please

[@Andytizer]

Check this out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIXSdKKdh6qDr5Y

[@pipooon]

I’m selling my base m1 MacBook Air because my gaming pc has a 4th gen intel and a 1050ti gpu 😢 Little context: 2 years ago I buyed the M1 MBA because PC parts in that year are too expensive and this was the reason why I choose the MacBook but now I need better specs and storage, sadly I can’t upgrade anything in the MacBook so I thing I buy a MacBook Pro later the next year, I really love the Apple Silicon Mac’s

[@TP391-v8r]

you forgot Starcraft 2 ! 😁

[@robotman011]

How did you get Overwatch 2 to run on Mac?! I tried to get it to work with both Crossover and Parallels on a M2 16gb MacBook Air and it basically wouldn't work

[@Andytizer]

Did you install Overwatch 2 in its own CrossOver bottle and enable DXVK and Msync?

[@Knowledgeable7]

make a video on more online games like (smite, warframe and predecessor) there a way to by pass anti cheat 🙏🙏🙏

[@TooVainMusic]

Nice, very nice :))

[@heyitsazar]

Great video for students. Thanks a lot

[@ivanterziev5313]

How did you get overwatch to work, i have crossover 24.0.5, but when i install the overwatch 2 bottle, the game doesn't wanna launch, it goes to update, play, then again, it seems to be crashing on launch or something

[@Andytizer]

Currently not working due to recent Overwatch 2 patch, not sure when it'll get fixed.

[@ivanterziev5313]

@ thank you for responding ❤️

[@markslima1557]

i have latest ryujink on my macbook air m2 16gbRAM with red dead redemption but it always freezes about five minutes into the game... thoughts.. ?

[@SelectaZero]

I have the same m2 air 16 RAM and 512GB which comes with the 10 GPU cores instead of 8. Do you have a more curated list of games for it, since it performs a bit better than the base m1?

[@hectorpikipiki]

Disable shader cache and enable recompression

[@Dthus]

GTA 5 didnt work and No man sky r u running from steam or native as i cant find the game in appstore ??

[@전유현-l7x]

You cant find no man’s sky on steam? As for gta 5 I downloaded Heroic Launcher on Crossover and then downloaded the game on heroic You have to purchase the game on heroic platform of course

[@Dthus]

@@전유현-l7x i have gta 5 on epic but it didnt work

[@chinmaypophale9457]

How to download these games???

[@notdatguyrahul]

Do u think GTA 5 will hit mac anytime soon?

[@Nsfwstar]

In short macbooks (even at the lowest tier) are good for mac gaming and almost any mac games , windows gaming on the mac in the other hand is another story lol

[@nicktw8688]

Two more suggestions: Project Zomboid Frostpunk (the first one)

[@isra_dlg]

Frostpunk struggles a little bit but is totally playable and worthy

[@dominikk8354]

Can you please do a tutorial on how to install and enable d3d metal toolkit for GTA5?🙏🏻

[@Andytizer]

I've done one here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmKaXn2Dg794Z9k

[@dominikk8354]

@@Andytizer Thank you so much

[@MajorPickleSwag]

what about risk of rain 2?