Cities: Skylines on M1 Mac: Can it run on Apple Silicon?

Cities: Skylines can run on M1 Macs via Rosetta 2.

[toc] Cities: Skylines did the unthinkable when it came out of nowhere and took down SimCity to become the ultimate city-builder sim around.

In spite of SimCity’s efforts to right its wrongs, it just wasn’t enough. Cities: Skylines is truly an excellent strategy game and the best city simulation ever released on PC or Mac.

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

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support
	Cities: Skylines	Simulation	Yes		OpenGL	Rosetta

Cities: Skylines M1 Mac support

We tested the game on our M1 Macs and can confirm Apple Silicon Macs can perfectly run Cities: Skylines, even better than Intel Macs.

Last Updated: Oct 29, 2021:

Colossal Order has always secured great macOS support. In fact, they were among the early AAA game devs to support the Metal API on macOS. For the moment, though, they have not to implemented native M1 support yet. Still, thanks to Rosetta 2, Cities: Skylines runs great on M1 Macs, even the game is still coded for Intel 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.

Cities: Skylines M1 Mac benchmarks

These are the Cities: Skylines M1 benchmarks we have gathered so far (we used our very own Count It app to track FPS figures):

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.

Tested versions:

• MacBook Air: MacOS Big Sur version 11.1
• OS: macOS Big Sur version 11.4

Submit & Request M1 results

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Cities: Skylines Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

PS: The game’s requirements claim that “Intel Integrated Graphics Cards” are not supported, but we can confirm this doesn’t apply to M1 Macs. Read on for more details.

Cities: Skylines on Mac: Verdict

Developed by Colossal Order, Cities: Skylines was released at the perfect time. Right around the corner of SimCity’s botched release, Skylines came out of nowhere on both Mac and Windows, showing players what a modern city-builder is supposed to be.

Bottom line: If you’re even remotely interested in action-RPGs or looter-based games, you simply owed it yourself to give Diablo 3 a shot:

  93% Steam

Cities: Skylines Mac download

Cities: Skylines can be purchased from all the major online stores, including Steam.

And more importantly, if you have your own M1 test results to share, on this game or another, you can share them with us on our dedicated Discord server.