No, War Thunder still cannot run on M1 Macs.
[toc] War Thunder in an MMO unlike no other. Instead of taking place in a medieval universe full of magic, elves, and dragons, War Thunder takes place in a World War 2 universe filled with tanks, planes, and warships.
War Thunder is also a generous free-to-play game that can offer hundreds of hours of entertainment without requiring you to take out your wallet.
War Thunder on Mac
War Thunder’s Mac version features everything the Windows of the game does. On top of that, the game supports cross-platform multiplayer, meaning you can play the game with your Windows friends:
| Genre: | MMO | 64-Bit Support: |  |
M1 Support: | Unsupported |
| Developer: | Gaijin Entertainment | API: | Metal | M1 Performance: | NA |
Is War Thunder worth it? The reviews
War Thunder’s popularity cannot be denied. It’s still one of the most played games on Steam (Top 30 at the time of this writing), which isn’t surprising given how much reviewers and gamers alike enjoy it:
80% Reviews
War Thunder Mac requirements
These are the game’s official Mac requirements:
| Minimum Requirements | |
| OS: | 10.15 |
| Processor: | Intel Core i5 |
| Memory: | 6 GB RAM |
| Graphics: | Intel Iris Pro 5200 |
| Hard Drive: | 17 GB |
| Metal support is required | |
Note that according to these system requirements, older Macs with last-gen integrated graphics should not be able to run it.
War Thunder M1 Mac support
No, War Thunder still cannot run on M1 Macs. Not even with Rosetta 2.
Last Updated: Jan 30, 2021.
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.
The game was tested on the following M1 Mac:
- 13-inch MacBook Air (2020): Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU, 8 GB RAM
As you can see below, the game is still exclusively written for Intel-based Macs, which is usually not an issue thanks to Rosetta 2. But in this case, War Thunder still cannot run on M1 Macs:
You can open the game and even get to the menus, but once you try to start a match, the screen will freeze until you manually force quit the game.
An ongoing issue, confirmed
We weren’t the only ones encountering this problem. According to this long thread on the official War Thunder forums, the game simply cannot run on M1 Macs, and as far we know, no solution is being worked on.
Tested versions:
- MacBook Air: MacOS Big Sur version 11.1
- War Thunder: Version 2.3.0.83
More M1 gaming? Visit our M1 Supported Games list for 100+ Mac games we have tested and confirmed as M1-compatible.
Submit & Request M1 results
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If you’re interested in testing games on your own M1 Mac, you can use this form:
You can also join our Discord to request a game or talk with other M1 Mac users.
War Thunder Mac download
You can download War Thunder from the following digital stores:
And more importantly, if you have your own M1 test results to share, on this game or another, please share them with us using this form.
Working right now on my 2021 16″ MacBook Pro with a M1 Pro
Yeah a lot of the games on this site are not updated at all. I am running War thunder 70-100 fps on macbook pro m1 14in. I have started to use other websites that update more often.
Yes, I’m afraid this will always be a problem. I run 95% of the tests over here, and while I spent weeks updating a LOT of posts in October-December last year, some are still to be done… I do take note of your comment and will update this one soon.
Thanks
This is LONG out of date. WT started running on the M-series in the summer of 2021, and there’s plenty of Reddit threads on the performance – which is generally very impressive,