RimWorld on M1 Mac: Runs great on Apple Silicon

RimWorld can run on M1 Macs via Rosetta 2.

[toc] RimWorld is a sci-fi colony simulator driven by an intelligent AI storyteller able to generate stories by simulating psychology, combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, medicine, trade, and much more.

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

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support	Performance
	RimWorld	Simulation	Yes		TBC	Rosetta	Good

RimWorld M1 and M2 Mac benchmarks

The table summarizes our benchmark results as well as results from other members of the community (you can request more benchmarks on Twitter):

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 (frames per second) because 30 FPS is enough to guarantee a smooth and fluid experience for the average casual gamer.

M1 & M2 Mac support: Rosetta

RimWorld runs on M1 Macs with Apple Silicon via Rosetta 2.

RimWorld on Mac (Rosetta 2)

The game is still exclusively written for Intel-based Macs, but thanks to Rosetta 2, RimWorld can nonetheless run great on M1 and M2 Macs.

What is Rosetta 2? Rosetta 2 is a translation process that enables M1 and M2 Macs to run apps built for Intel-based Macs. This is not an app you’ll have to open and or interact it. Install it once, and it’ll take care of the rest.

Other M1 games you may like:

	Farming Simulator 22	Simulation	Native
	Cities: Skylines	Simulation	Rosetta
	Football Manager 2021	Simulation	Rosetta
	Planet Coaster	Simulation	Rosetta
	The Sims 4	Simulation	Rosetta

RimWorld Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

Is RimWorld on Mac worth it?

One of our favorite games on Mac, RimWorld is simply an excellent simulation game. The game may appear somewhat simplistic at first, probably because of the bare-bones graphics, but as your colony grows, you’ll quickly become engrossed by the sheer scale of everything that takes place in your settlement.

As Jez Corden from Windows Central puts it:

RimWorld is an utterly brutal survival sim where cutesy simplistic graphics belies endless depth, and you get procedural drama on a scale I have never before experienced in video game form.

If you’re into simulation games, RimWorld is hands down a must:

Bottom line:

RimWorld download

You can download RimWorld from Steam.

Why you should trust us

While similar sites opted for 100% community-based submissions and results, we decided to stick with a semi-open setup. Of course, your contributions are essential for us, but we still perform a significant part of the benchmarks published on our site and verify all submitted tests before including them on the site.

We spend hours per week testing games on our 2 Apple Silicon Macs, and you can rest assured that someone on the team has verified all the information you’ll read on Mac Gamer HQ. Our tests include digging into the Terminal, running benchmarks, and more.

Our Machines :

We performed our in-house tests on the following machines:

• 14-inch MacBook Pro (2021): Apple M1 Pro chip with 8-Core CPU, 14-Core GPU, 16 GB RAM
• MacBook Air (2020): Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU, 8 GB RAM

If you have more questions, or your own M1 test results to share, on this game or another, hit us up on the comments below on our private Discord server!