Riot Games’ shooter Valorant isn’t available for macOS but here we show you how to install and play Valorant on a Mac in 2024 including on Apple Silicon Macs
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Can You Play Valorant on a Mac?
There is no version of Valorant for Mac and you can only play it by installing Windows on a Mac.
However, although there are many ways of running Windows on a Mac, Valorant will only work if you install Windows on macOS using Boot Camp.
This is because Valorant uses the Vanguard anti-cheat software which only works in Boot Camp.
The Vanguard anti-cheat software used by Valorant will not work in virtual machines that run Windows and macOS side-by-side such as Parallels.
Vanguard is a kernel level anti-cheat system which also causes problems for Windows users sometimes and virtual environments cannot support it at all.
Boot Camp is a free utility in macOS that allows you to install Windows on a Mac but unfortunately it only works on Intel Macs – Boot Camp is not available for M1/M2/M3 Macs.
For more on playing Windows PC games on a Mac, check out our guide to the best ways to play Windows games on Mac.
Can You Play Valorant on M1, M2 & M3 Macs?
At the moment, there’s no way to play Valorant on M-Series chip Macs such as the M2 MacBook Pro.
You can’t play Valorant on an Apple Silicon Macs because Boot Camp does not work with the Apple Silicon Macs.
Boot Camp only works with Intel Macs so you can only install Valorant on an Intel Mac.
Although you can install Windows games on M1, M2 & M3 Macs, Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat protection won’t work in them.
Can You Play Valorant in Xbox Cloud?
You can only play Valorant in Xbox Cloud if you have a Windows PC. You can now link Xbox Cloud to your Riot account to play Valorant but it still requires you to download the Vanguard PC client to do so so it won’t work on a Mac.
You can play some games in Xbox Cloud on a Mac using an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate account but not Vanguard as the launcher is Windows only.
If you link your Riot account to your Xbox Cloud account on a Mac and try to play Vanguard in it, you’ll receive a message that your computer is not supported.
Can You Play Valorant on GeForce Now?
GeForce Now For Mac is NVIDIA’s cloud gaming platform but unfortunately, Valorant is not available on it so you can’t play Valorant on a Mac using GeForce Now.
You also can’t play Valorant on a Mac using Google Stadia.
What If Valorant Is Blocked In My Country?
In some countries such as Iran, Valorant servers have been blocked while in others like UAE and Saudi Arabia there are limits on voice chats due to VoIP laws.
In these cases, you’ll also need to use a VPN like NordVPN for Mac to play Valorant.
Check out our guide to the best VPNs for Mac to help unblock Valorant in your region.
How To Play Valorant On Mac
The only way to play Valorant on Mac is to install Windows using Boot Camp which only works on Intel Macs.
Boot Camp is a free utility in macOS that allows you to partition your Mac hard drive and run Windows on it. It allows you to boot your Mac in either macOS or Windows at any one time.
It’s definitely worth Bootcamping your Mac if you’re a gamer because it will allow you to play Windows games that aren’t available for Mac.
Boot Camp is perfectly safe to install on your Mac as it is provided free in macOS by Apple to allow you to install other operating systems such as Windows.
The great thing is nowadays you can install Windows 10 on a Mac and Windows 11 on a Mac for free using Boot Camp and you don’t even need to purchase a license to use it.
This is because Microsoft only require you to purchase a Windows activation key if you want to customize the look of Windows.
If you don’t, you can use Windows 10 and Windows 11 for free for as long as you want.
At the moment we recommend installing Windows 10 rather than Windows 11 to play Valorant as there are some occasional glitches playing Valorant on Windows 11.
To install Windows on your Mac and play Valorant using Boot Camp you’ll need to have at least one of the following Intel Macs:
- MacBook 2015 or later
- MacBook Air/Pro 2012 or later
- Mac mini 2012 or later
- iMac 2012 or later
- iMac Pro (all models)
- Mac Pro 2013 or later
If you’ve got one of these Macs, then follow these instructions to install Windows 11 using Boot Camp.
Once you’ve done this, simply go to the Valorant website to download and play the game just as if you were installing it on a Windows PC.
Once you’ve installed Valorant on your Mac, you may need to change some of the game settings such as the frame rate if you experience lag.
You can watch Valorant running on a Mac below and as you can see, it even works on something as early as a 2015 MacBook Pro.
Will Valorant Be Released For Mac?
At the moment Riot Games has no plans for a Mac compatible release of Valorant.
The usual reason for this is that developers cannot justify the investment of developing and supporting games on macOS when the user base is so small compared Windows.