ARK: Survival Evolved on M1 Mac: Can it run on Apple Silicon?

ARK: Survival Evolved can run on M1 Macs via Rosetta 2.

[toc] At its core, ARK: Survival Evolved is a survival first-person shooter, similar to Rust, but on top of being able to craft tools and build fortresses, there are also dinosaurs you can tame and ride.

Needless to say, this is an incredibly entertaining, deep, and punishing game where both opposing players and dinosaurs are a constant threat.

More M1 gaming? Visit our M1 Supported Games list for 100+ Mac games we have tested and confirmed as M1-compatible.

ARK: Survival Evolved M1 Mac support

ARK: Survival Evolved runs on M1 Macs with Apple Silicon via Rosetta 2.

ARK: Survival Evolved M1 support (using Rosetta 2 and OpenGL)

As you can see below, the game is still written for Intel-based Macs, but thanks to Rosetta 2, ARK: Survival Evolved can nonetheless run great on M1 Macs.

What is Rosetta 2? Rosetta 2 is a translation process that enables an M1 Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for Intel-based Macs.

How to run ARK: Survival Evolved on M1 Mac

Unlike 99% of Intel-based games that can run on M1 Macs out of the box, ARK: Survival Evolved has a problem that you’ll need to resolve.

Fear not, however, as Reddit user u/tombob51 created a patcher that just works. You can find the download link and instructions here (it only takes 2 minutes):

• Download ARK: Survival Evolved on Steam
• Navigate to the app in Finder. If you’re using Steam: right-click the game in your library, choose “Manage”, then “Browse local files”.
• Open the downloaded patcher and set the desired GPU type.
• Drag the app into the patcher and wait for the green checkmark.
• Launch the game through Steam

A big thank you to Tombob51 for the extremely easy-to-use patcher, you legend!

We tested the game using the following M1 Mac:

14-inch MacBook Pro (2021): Apple M1 Pro chip with 8-core CPU, 14-Core GPU, and 16GB of Unified Memory

ARK: Survival Evolved M1 Mac benchmarks

These are all the official benchmarks results so far (including tests from other members of the community):

As a reminder, this is how we describe the different levels of performance:

• Below 20 FPS: Unplayable: Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns.
• 20-30 FPS: Borderline: Can be OK in slow-paced games. Still, not optimal.
• 30-45 FPS: Playable: Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this).
• 45-60 FPS: Smooth: Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters.
• 60+ FPS: Very Smooth: For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.

We usually aim for 30 FPS, because 30 FPS is enough to guarantee a smooth and fluid experience for most casual gamers.

ARK: Survival Evolved Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

⚠️ According to these system requirements, a Mac with integrated graphics should not be able to run it. But we can confirm it’s definitely possible.

ARK: Survival Evolved on Mac: Verdict

As explained in our official Mac review, ARK has always been a difficult game to run on Windows. In spite of offering the same core features as the Windows version, including cross-platform multiplayer, ARK has always been poorly optimized for macOS.

ARK’s reviews are mixed. People either love it or hate it. It certainly has enough depth and entire gameplay loops to keep you entertained for hours, but the game is generally riddled with bugs, which hold it back:

ARK: Survival Evolved Mac download

You can download the game from Steam.

But more importantly, if you have your own M1 test results to share, on this game or another, let us know on our Discord server!