Diablo 4 is already one of Blizzard’s best-performing games, and PC players have been enjoying their journey through Sanctuary so far. But what if you are a Mac user and want to play it on your Apple device instead?
Since the game isn’t natively available on Mac, you will have to go through a few workarounds to make the game work on your Apple device. There is certain emulation software that you can use to get the game running on your Apple system if you so choose.
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We will give you a step-by-step guide on how the installation process works, but first, some prerequisites need to be met.
Diablo 4 system requirements
Before we get to installing the game, first you need to know if your device is capable of running Diablo 4. The minimum and recommended specifications for the game are as follows.
- Minimum requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 90 GB
- Recommended requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 90 GB (SSD preferred)
If your system meets these requirements, we can then move on to making the game run on your device. You will need to ensure that your system can run the game smoothly at all times, especially when you’re leveling up and collecting primary resources or engaging in big fights where you have to land several lucky hits to end the fight quickly.
How to run Diablo 4 on a Mac
Before we begin, one important thing to note is that this method will only work on Intel Macs. So if you own any of the Apple Silicon Macs, like the M1 or M2 Macs, this method will not work for you. If you have an Intel Mac at your disposal, however, feel free to proceed further.
- Step one: Install Boot Camp on your system. This software will allow you to install a fresh copy of Windows on your Mac device.
- Step two: Use Boot Camp to create a partition on your drive that you can then install Windows on. This will set things up for installing additional software on your system.
- Step three: Now that you can boot your system using Windows, you are also free to install DirectX 12 on your device. Diablo 4 will not run without it, so this step is essential.
- Step four: Once DirectX 12 is installed, it’s time to get Blizzard’s Battle.net client. Download and install the Windows version of the client, then navigate to Diablo 4 in your games list and install it on your system.
- Step five: Run the game. For the first time you run it, make sure all of your settings are at the lowest possible options and then slowly increase them till you find your preferred settings.
The reason for the last step is that you are trying to run a game originally meant for Windows on a Mac device. Ideally, it would be best to maintain a fair balance of good detail with over 60 frames per second to ensure a smooth gaming experience and no screen tearing, especially during some of the massive fights where you have to manage your crowd control abilities.
Why can’t I run the game normally on Mac?
Unfortunately, Diablo 4‘s initial release on June 6 did not include Mac support, so there is no default way to make the game run on your device without going through the above steps. Also, as mentioned earlier, this method only works for Intel-based Macs. If you own an Apple Silicon Mac device, there is an alternate method that would allow you to run the game on your system.
The Sonoma Game Porting Kit is a toolkit for Mac devices that allows developers to port their games to an Apple system. We don’t recommend this method unless you have a robust knowledge of programming or are a developer yourself. The only way to even gain access to the toolkit is by being a part of the Apple Developer Program.
Since the Sonoma method isn’t user-friendly, we recommend sticking to the Boot Camp method, or preferably just installing the game on your Windows PC instead.
