The Sims 4 on M1 Mac: Can your Apple Silicon Mac run it?

The Sims 4 can run on M1 Macs via Rosetta 2.

The Sims 4 doesn’t need an introduction. A life simulation game that gives you the power to create and control your very own Sim, The Sims 4 is the latest entry in the legendary Sims series and features tons of new systems that make it the most sophisticated and enthralling Sims game to date.

And by the way, the base game can be downloaded for free nowadays! You can read all about it here.

More M1 gaming? Our M1 & M2 Supported Games hub features 200+ Mac games we have tested and confirmed as M1-compatible.

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support	Performance
	The Sims 4	Simulation	Yes		Metal	Rosetta	Good

The Sims 4 M1 Mac benchmarks

The table summarizes our results as well as results 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.

The Sims 4 M1 Mac support

The Sims 4 runs on M1 and M2 Macs with Apple Silicon via Rosetta 2.

The game is still exclusively written for Intel-based Macs, but thanks to Rosetta 2, The Sims 4 can nonetheless run seasmlessly 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.

The Sims 4 Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

⚠️ Note that according to these system requirements, a Mac with integrated graphics should not be able to run it. But we can confirm it’s possible. More on that below.

Is The Sims 4 on Mac worth it?

The Sims 4 hasn’t always delivered great Mac support. For a while, it was no longer playable due to a lack of 64-bit support. But ever since, developer Maxis stepped up its game and ensured The Sims 4 on Mac is just as good as on Windows.

So did The Sims 4 deliver? Is it as good as its predecessors? The game didn’t receive exceptional reviews at launch. Most agreed The Sims 3 had more to do and they punished The Sims 4 for it.

Yet The Sims 4 has always had more depth. And since its initial release, the game has received plenty of updates and DLCs.

Bottom line: In spite of average reviews, The Sims 4 is the best Sims game you can buy today, by far.

The Sims 4 Mac download

You can download The Sims 4 for free from EA.com.

Be aware that the game is also available on Steam but that version does not support macOS.

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!