How to Play Palia on Mac (All Methods)

TL;DR – Methods to play Palia

Cloud Gaming (Boosteroid/GeForce Now): Stream Palia on any Mac with Boosteroid (15 Mbps) or GeForce Now (25 Mbps) for easy setup and enhanced performance.
CrossOver: Run Palia locally on M1 or better Macs using CrossOver, with moderate setup complexity and near-native performance.
Whisky: Use Whisky to play Palia locally on Apple Silicon Macs, requiring some setup focus but delivering solid results.
Bootcamp: Install Windows via Bootcamp on Intel Macs to run Palia, though it’s time-intensive and best for high-end machines.

Palia is a lesser-known gem of a game that I really love and can recommend to anyone looking for a chill free-to-play life sim title with some surprisingly deep, yet intuitive mechanics. But since this game isn’t supported natively for Mac, playing it on an Apple machine requires some workaround trickery that I’ll share with you in the next paragraphs.

Can You Play Palia on Mac?

You can definitely play Palia on your Mac – you just need to know the workarounds. There are five options I recommend: two cloud gaming options – Boosteroid and GeForce Now – and three solutions that let you run the game locally, namely, CrossOver, Whisky, and Bootcamp.

Each solution has its pros and cons, but they are all solid for running Palia on your Mac, so choosing the right one will mostly depend on personal preference and your specific setup.

Generally, I recommend the two cloud gaming solutions as the easiest, most straightforward workarounds that will consistently give you great results.

CrossOver and Whisky are good if you own a mid or high-end Mac and they let you leverage the system’s hardware since they both let you run the game locally, after downloading.

Bootcamp is similar in that it allows you to play Palia locally, but it only works on Intel-based Macs. Bootcamp is the method I recommend the least, simply because its setup takes a while and, also, most Intel Macs don’t have very good GPUs, so the game won’t run great anyway unless you are using a high-end machine.

Click here for a more detailed breakdown of all the methods.

	Boosteroid and GFN	CrossOver	Whisky	BootCamp
Requirements	≥ 15 Mbps Internet speed (Boosteroid) ≥ 25 Mbps Internet speed (GFN)	Apple Silicon M1 or better	Apple Silicon M1 or better	MacBook Pro (i5 or i7) or better
Must Own Game	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supported game stores	Steam	Steam	Steam	Steam
Setup Difficulty	1/5 – 🍼 Child’s Play	4/5 – 🧩 Moderate Challenge	3/5 – 🎯 Some Focus Required	3/5 – 🎯 Some Focus Required
Time to Set Up	~ 10 min	~ 20-30 min	~ 30-40 min	~ 1-2 hours
Performance	4/5 – near native experience	4/5 – near native experience	4/5 – near native experience	4/5 – game runs well on mid and high-end Intel Macs
Stability	4/5 – only minor hiccups	4/5 – only minor hiccups	3/5 – a bit finicky	5/5 – very stable with powerful enough Macs

Now let’s move on to how to use those methods.

How to Play Palia on Mac

Now that you are familiar with the specifics of the different solutions, let me show you how to set up each one and use it to play Palia on your Mac. We’ll first start with the two cloud gaming options, then I’ll show you how to play Palia with CrossOver and Whisky, and finally, I’ll provide my Bootcamp guide for those of you using an Intel Mac.

Play Palia With Boosteroid

How to Play Palia on Mac With Boosteroid

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1.1
Click the Boosteroid button above. Create an account or sign up with Google.
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Go to your profile page(top-right), click Subscribe, select a preferred plan, and start your subscription.
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Search for “Palia”, choose your preferred version of the game (Steam, Epic, etc.) and click Play (or Install and Play).
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Click OK, Let’s go, and wait for the game to load.
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Log into your game store account. Palia will launch directly in your browser.

Play Palia With GeForce Now

How to Play Palia on Mac With GFN

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Click the GeForce Now link → Join Now → sign up for your preferred plan.
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Go to the Downloads page. Download GeForce Now for macOS.
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Double-click the installer. Drag the app to your Applications folder.
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Launch GFN and log in.
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Click the menu in the top left → Settings → connect your respective game store account.
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Click the menu again → Games → search for Palia, and click Play.
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Wait for the connection test. If you get a weak connection warning, you can ignore it by clicking Continue and still play the game.
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Wait for the game to load and start playing.

Play Palia With CrossOver

How to Play Palia on Mac With CrossOver

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Click the CrossOver button, download the app (the free 14-day trial or the paid version), and install it.
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Open CrossOver → Bottle (top-left) → New Bottle → Create (Windows 10, 64-bit compatibility).
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Right-click the new bottle → Install Software → search for Steam and install it.
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Open Steam, log in, search for Palia in your library, and install it.
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After it installs, exit Steam, enable E-Sync, and D3DMetal, and Reboot the bottle.
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Start Steam again and launch Palia from your library.

Play Palia With Whisky

How to Download Palia on Mac With Whisky

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Click the Whisky button above and download the latest version.
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Double-click the downloaded .zip file and drag and drop the extracted Whisky to your Applications folder.
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Start Whisky. Click Open when asked to confirm the action. Click Next to install.
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Select Create a Bottle and create one with Windows 10 compatibility.
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Open this Steam page and click the Windows logo (under Install Steam) to download the Windows version.
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In Whisky, click Open C: drive. Drag and drop the SteamSetup.exe file into C:.
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Click Run in Whisky, find SteamSetup.exe, open it, and follow the prompts.
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When Steam installs, log in and click Allow when asked if you want the application to accept incoming connections.
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In Steam, find Palia, click Install, and launch the game when its ready.

How to Run Palia on Mac With Bootcamp

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Head to Microsoft’s official site and download the latest Windows 10 ISO file.
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Next, open Boot Camp Assistant (found in Applications > Utilities), click Continue → Choose, pick your downloaded Windows ISO file, then click Open.
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Adjust the slider to give your Windows partition at least 50 GB storage, then click Install → Next.
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The installation begins. Follow the prompts, skip the product key prompt by selecting “I don’t have a product key”, then finish setting up Windows as guided.
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Once Windows is installed and set up, download Steam, install it, and use it to download Palia. Once that’s done, you are ready to play.

Palia on Mac – Conclusion

Palia’s cozy life sim allure thrives on Mac through clever workarounds, despite lacking native support.

Boosteroid and GeForce Now offer the simplest paths, streaming the game with minimal setup, solid performance, and access to countless other titles.

CrossOver and Whisky shine for Apple Silicon users, harnessing local hardware for near-native experiences, though they demand more setup effort.

Bootcamp, while viable for Intel Macs, trails due to its lengthy installation and modest performance on weaker GPUs. Each method delivers Palia’s intuitive mechanics and vibrant world, catering to varied Mac setups and preferences.

For ease, cloud gaming leads; for local control, CrossOver or Whisky excel. Whichever route you choose, Palia on Mac proves accessible, stable, and ready to envelop you in its charming, community-driven adventure.