Overwatch can be played on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, but it has not been designed and developed to be played on macOS. While this can be disappointing for some, there are a couple of ways that you can still play it on your Mac.
I’m Eric. I have been a software engineer for over 25 years, and I have enjoyed playing computer games since the early 1980s. I have had plenty of experience getting games to work on different types of systems and would like to share the information I have learned with you.
In this article, I will discuss two different ways that you can play Overwatch on your Mac. I will also warn you about some possibly fake websites that say they do have a version of the game available for Mac.
If you would like to know more, keep reading!
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How to Play Overwatch On Your Mac
If you love to play Overwatch and would like to be able to play it on your Mac, you have probably found that it is not available for macOS. While you can’t run it in macOS, you can run it on your Mac machine through a Windows environment.
There are two different methods to do this. One is to use virtual machine software to run a Windows environment on your Mac desktop. The other is to use Mac’s Boot Camp to load and run a Windows operating system on your computer.
Let’s take a quick look at both of these options to help you determine which one will work best for you.
Virtual Machine
A virtual machine or VM for short is an application that allows you to run an entire operating system within a window on your computer’s desktop. So, by using a VM application such as VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop, you can run a virtual Windows machine on your desktop.
On this virtual version of Windows, you can install any Windows application just like you would on a Windows PC. Once you have a Windows VM up and running on your Mac, you can use it to download, install and play Overwatch within that VM.
A VM is easy to set up so this is a very quick and convenient way to run and play the game. The downside to this method may be poor performance. Running a VM takes a great deal of processing power and may possibly run slow on many machines.
If the VM runs too slowly, you will see a lag while playing the game. VMs are also known to be bad with graphics and video displays which will create a choppy video. These issues could lead to a disappointing experience if you do not have top-of-the-line high-powered hardware.
Boot Camp
This is another solution that will allow you to run the game in a Windows environment on your Mac computer. Boot Camp allows you to create a Windows partition on your hard drive and when you start your computer you can choose whether to start macOS or Windows.
This can be a great solution because you will be running a real version of Windows directly on your computer. It will be just like running it on a Windows PC. You can easily download, install and play Overwatch just like you would on any other Windows computer.
The downside to this solution is that every time you want to switch operating systems (macOS to Windows or Windows to macOS) you will need to restart your computer. This can be a pain if you do a lot of things in macOS and have to spend the time rebooting.
Which One is Best?
It’s hard to give a definite answer unless we know what kind of system you have, how serious a gamer you are, and how important convenience is to you. Both of these solutions will require a great deal of free disk space so you will want to keep that in mind for either.
In my opinion, if you are a serious gamer, the Boot Camp option is probably going to be the best and most reliable solution. Nobody wants to play a game like Overwatch on a system that can’t keep up with the action.
I love virtual machines and think they are wonderful tools, but when it comes to system performance of a graphic intensive game, having a dedicated system with all of its resources is going to give you the best playing experience.
A Word Of Caution
If you’re searching for a Mac version of Overwatch, there is a chance you may run into some websites which claim to have one. During my research, I ran into a few of these myself.
They say that they have a Mac version or make some type of statement indicating that there is finally a Mac version available. When you click on the link to download it, it takes you to a form to sign up for something. It will request an email and possibly other information.
In the end, there is no Mac version provided and they have collected your information. This happens sometimes with popular software and especially games. We can be so excited to get the game that we will try any link that leads us to believe it is there.
I highly recommend staying away from these sites. If you want to have the real version and see what the developers truly have available, you should visit their official website and that will provide you with the latest downloads available. If there is a Mac version they will have it there.
For Overwatch, I went to their website which I found through their company, Blizzard. From here I can be assured to get the latest version and find out what operating systems they really do support.
If you don’t see it here then you will know that whatever you are finding in your searches is not an officially licensed copy of the software.
Final Words
Although it’s not designed to run on macOS, there are a couple of good options for running this game on your Mac computer. A VM is a possible solution if you have a newer computer with plenty of processing power. Boot Camp is a great solution that will work for almost any Mac.
Be careful when searching for a solution and make sure that you are getting the official version of the game by checking with their website. I hope the advice above can help you to decide how you want to play Overwatch.
Let us know if you know of any other solutions! We would love to hear from you.