About Far Cry 6 on Mac

Far Cry 6 is not officially available on Mac systems, as it has no version for macOS. However, you could still play Far Cry 6 on a Mac either through a cloud gaming service, by using Boot Camp, or with the help of virtualization software.

Far Cry 6, developed by Ubisoft, is the latest installment in this popular FPS gaming series. It was released on the 7th of October and is available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, and Google Stadia. As is with many newer games, there isn’t a macOS release of the game. Although this is to be expected, if you are a Mac owner and want to play this game (without buying a PC, an Xbox, or a PlayStation), it could be aggravating that there is no official way to run the game on your Mac.

Options

The good news is that there are actually quite a few workaround options. For starters, the availability of the game on three cloud-based gaming services means that you can play the game from your Mac without even having it installed on it. However, since it’s possible that none of the mentioned services are available in your country, you may need to resort to more elaborate methods to play Far Cry 6 on your Mac.

One alternative possibility is the use of the Boot Camp Assistant app to install Windows 10 in a separate partition on your Mac and then download the game in that Windows partition. This method, however, can only be used on Macs with Intel processors. If your Mac has an M1 chip, then the alternative is to create a virtual Windows 10 machine using one of the many virtualization tools available out there.

Note

Here is something important that we need to point out about those latter two methods – while using a cloud gaming service to play a game will not actually require your Mac to meet the system requirements of the game (since the game won’t technically be running on your Mac), if you go for the Boot Camp Assistant method or the virtual machine one, not only will your Mac need to meet the minimum requirements for Far Cry 6 but exceed them. Both of those methods put additional strain on your Mac’s hardware so, in order for them to be actually viable options for you to play this particular game, your Mac would need to be quite powerful. It’s best if the machine meets the recommended requirements for Far Cry 6 so that you’d get to play the game without any serious performance issues, sudden screen freezes, or unexpected errors and game crashes. With this in mind, here are the official system requirements for Far Cry 6:

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Minimum requirements (30 FPS)

  • OS Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
  • CPU AMD Ryzen 3 1200 @ 3. GHz or Intel Core i5-4460 @ 3.1 GHz
  • RAM 8 GB (Dual-channel mode)
  • GPU AMD RX 460 (4 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (4 GB)
  • DirectX 12
  • Hard Drive 60 GB available storage

Recommended requirements (60 FPS)

  • OS Windows 10 (64-bit versions)
  • CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600X @ 3.8 GHz or Intel Core i7-7700 @ 3.6 GHz
  • RAM 16 GB (Dual-channel mode)
  • GPU AMD RX Vega 64 (8 GB) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB)
  • DirectX 12
  • Hard Drive 60 GB available storage

How to Play Far Cry 6 on Mac M1

To play Far Cry 6 on Mac M1 models, one option is to use virtualization software such as Parallels to create a virtual Windows 10 machine on your Mac and then play the Windows version of the game:

  1. First, you must download Parallels from its official site and install it on your Mac.
  2. Then you need to set up the Windows 10 virtual machine.
  3. Finally, you can download and play Far Cry 6 on your Mac M1.

You can find more information on how to set up Parallels bellow.

This isn’t the only way to play this game on your Mac. Another possible option is to use Google Stadia or GeForce Now – those are cloud gaming services that will allow you to play the game on a remote machine, with the gameplay getting streamed to your Mac. We will tell you more about those services further down this article.

How to play Far Cry 6 on Mac

To play Far Cry 6 on Mac, you can use the Google Stadia or GeForce Now cloud gaming services. Another option to play Far Cry 6 on Mac is by installing Windows 10 on your Mac via Boot Camp Assistant or using virtualization software.

Using Google Stadia to play Far Cry 6 on Mac

Far Cry 6 is officially available on Google Stadia, so you can go there right now, download the Google Stadia client on your Mac, and start playing (provided that you already own the game). We will show you in more detail how exactly to do that on this page, but bear in mind that the Google Stadia cloud gaming service is currently available in a limited number of countries, so it’s possible that you may not be able to use it at the moment. You can check what countries are currently supported by the service right here.

Using GeForce Now to play Far Cry 6

GeForce Now is another popular cloud gaming service that Mac users can greatly benefit from when they want to play a game on their Mac that doesn’t have a macOS version. It, too, isn’t available all over the globe but if you live in North America or Europe, chances are that you’d be able to use GeForce Now.

Below, we’ve shown how you can set up the service and use it for gaming.

  1. Go to the GeForce Now website, select Play Now, and pick the subscription plan you prefer (Free or Priority, with the latter giving you up to 6 hours session length and significantly shorter waiting times).


  2. Log in if you already have an account or create one if you don’t and enter it.
    • If you don’t have an account and must now create one, once you’ve created it, you will have to go to the email you used for the account to verify it, and then you must return to the GeForce Now site, click the Play Again button once again, and then log in.
  3. Once you’ve entered your account, scroll down a bit, click the Download Apps button in the Quick Links section, and proceed to download the GeForce Now desktop client app for Mac.
  4. After the file gets downloaded, open it, and, in the window that shows up, drag the GeForce Now icon to the icon of your Applications folder – this will complete the installation of the client app.
  5. Now go to Steam, log in to your Steam account (or create an account if you currently don’t have one), find Far Cry 6, and purchase it.
  6. Once the game has been purchased, open Applications, and start the GeForce Now app from there.
  7. Search for the game in the GeForce Now client app, click on it, and then click Play.
  8. When asked whether you own the game, click on Continue. The game should now be launched, and you can start playing.
  9. When you are done playing for the time being, you can press Command + W to close it. Alternatively, you can also press Command + G, which will open a menu to the left, and then click the Quit button in that menu to exit the game. 

Playing Far Cry 6 through Boot Camp Assistant on Mac

We only recommend the Boot Camp Assistant method if neither of the two suggested cloud-services worked for you because this is by far the most time-consuming method to get the game running on your Mac. Still, if nothing else has allowed you to play Far Cry 6 on your Mac, this is still an option.

  1. Start by visiting this Microsoft page, picking the normal Windows 10 edition, and selecting confirm.
  2. Next, select the language that you prefer, click Confirm again, and then click on 64-bit Download.
  3. Download the Windows 10 ISO file for Mac and then go to Applications > Utilities, and launch the app named Boot Camp Assistant.
  4. When the Boot Camp Assistant starts, click Continue, then select Choose a Windows 10 ISO file > Choose, find the file you’ve just downloaded from Microsoft’s site, select it, and click Open.
  5. Now use the dot that’s between the two partitions to change the storage space distribution and allocate no less than 150 GB to the Windows 10 partition, while also making sure to leave at least 50 GB free space for the Mac partition. If you don’t have enough free space on your Mac to give both partitions enough storage, then you’d first have to free up some space before you continue.
  6. Click Install, wait for the Boot Camp Assistant to prepare for the installation – after some time, you will be asked to enter your Admin password, so do that, and click OK.
  7. When your Mac restarts, and you get to a screen with the Windows logo, select your language and region and click on Next.
  8. The next screen will ask for your product key – if you have such a key, enter it and select Continue. If you don’t have a key, click on the Skip/I don’t have a product key button. Not having a key will not stop you from installing Windows 10, so don’t worry.
    • If you are asked to choose between Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro on the next page, we recommend opting for the Home edition. Pro is only recommended if you think you’d actually need any of the more advanced features that are only available with the Pro edition.
  9. After that, click I Agree and then click on Next to begin the Windows 10 installation on your Mac. It would take some time before the installation completes, so we recommend making sure that your Mac stays plugged in to a power outlet so that there’s no risk of it running out of battery and shutting down, as this could lead to issues that can be difficult to fix and may require a specialist’s help.
  10. Once the installation is over, your Mac will restart once more and will boot into Windows 10. You will first be asked if you’d prefer to personally customize various Windows 10 settings or use the predetermined default settings – our advice is to take your time to personally customize everything.
  11. Next, you will have to create a Windows account, so type in your preferred username and password (the password isn’t mandatory but is recommended to have it).
  12. After that, you can choose to activate and customize the settings of Cortana – the virtual assistant of Windows 10 – or leave this for another time. Choose the option you prefer and continue. Once you are done with this, you will be welcomed into Windows 10.
  13. When Windows 10 loads, you should see the Boot Camp Assistant window open on your screen – click Next in it, then click I Accept, and then Next once more. This will start the process of installing Mac drivers for Windows. During the installation, your permission will likely be required more than once, so provide it by selecting Yes. Finally, once the drivers are installed, click Finish and the computer will restart.
  14. (Optional Step) For best Windows 10 experience and gaming performance, once your Mac restarts, we recommend that you open the Start Menu from the bottom-left, click Apple Software Update, and install any updates that your Mac may find. Again, if your Admin approval is required to install something, click Yes to allow the installation, and once everything’s installed, restart your Mac again.
  15. (Optional Step) After the restart, open the Start Menu once more, click Update & Security and go to the Windows Update section from the left. Windows 10 will automatically start looking for software updates and begin to install them. Once it is finished (this could take some time), you must yet again restart your Mac.

Once you’ve done everything up to this point, you should be ready to install Far Cry 6 in the Windows 10 partition of your Mac and start playing it. Instructions on how to do this are available further down this post.

How to switch between Windows and macOS on your Mac

It’s important to know how to change the partition you are using at the moment. One way to do this is to restart your Mac – when it starts to boot up, it will ask you to choose which partition you want to boot into.

Additionally, if you are currently in Windows 10 on your Mac, you can select the tilted square icon in the bottom-left of the screen and click Restart in macOS. If you don’t see such an icon, click the arrow that’s pointing up (again in the bottom-left corner), and then you will see the tilted square in a box with other icons that would show up.

On the other hand, if you are in macOS and want to boot to Windows 10, click the Apple Menu, go to System Preferences, and open the Startup Disk section. There, click the Padlock, type your password, and unlock the Startup Disk options. Next, click Bootcamp Windows and then click on Restart. Confirm the action and your Mac will restart and boot into Windows 10.

Play Far Cry 6 on mac m1 Tutorial

On Mac M1 models, the Boot Camp Assistant App can’t be used to install Windows 10, so an alternative to that method would be to use Parallels (or another virtualization software) to create a Windows 10 machine within your Mac so that you can download, install, and play Far Cry 6 from within that virtual machine. The Parallels method is also applicable to Macs with Intel processors, so, if for some reason the cloud gaming options and the Boot Camp Assistant method didn’t work for you on your Intel-based Mac, you can still try the current variant. 

Before we begin, we need to warn you that, since this isn’t an official way of playing Far Cry 6 on Mac, it wouldn’t be surprising if different unpredicted problems (suboptimal performance, bugs, game crashes, or freezes, errors, etc.) affect your gaming experience. Parallels have proven to allow Mac users to play Windows games on their Macs, but there’s no guarantee that this method would work for every single game. The good news is that the 14-day free trial period of Parallels would provide you with the time needed to test its virtual machine, find out if the result satisfies you, and decide whether you’d purchase the full product.

Now, without further ado, here’s how to set up a Windows 10 virtual machine on your Mac using Parallels:

  1. Start by going to Parallels’ site and clicking the Download Free Trial button.
  2. Next, select Download Now and download the Parallels installation file.
  3. Find the installation file you’ve just downloaded, open it.
  4. After that, double-click on Install Parallels Desktop. Click on Open if your Mac warns you that the program is from the Internet and the system cannot confirm its safety.
  5. Wait for the download to complete, enter your admin password if it is required, and click OK.
  6. You will have to wait for a couple more moments and then select Next, and click OK on every permission request that pops-up on your screen.
  7. Now leave the Parallels app for a moment (but don’t close it) and go to this link. When you open it, scroll down, find the Meet the Windows Insider Program section, and click on the Register option.
  8. Create a Microsoft account (if you don’t already have one) and sign in with it.
  9. Click Register Now on the next page and then click the Flight Now button.
  10. Next, open this page, log in to your Microsoft account (if you are not logged in at the moment), and then select Windows Client ARM 64 Insider Preview on the next page to download the ARM VHDX file – it’s quite a large file (approximately 9 GB), so you will have to wait for some time before the download is completed.
  11. After the ARM file downloads on your Mac, go back to Parallels, click Continue, then open the location where it was downloaded, and drag-and-drop the ARM file to the center of the window of the Parallels app.
  12. Click Continue in Parallels, then select the Games Only option (unless you intend to use the virtual machine for other activities and not only for gaming)
  13. On the next page, check the Customize Settings and select Create.
  14. You will be taken to a screen where you can manually customize the settings of the virtual machine. Since you want to use the virtual machine to play a rather demanding game, we recommend that you allocate as much RAM and processor cores as possible to the virtual machine. If your Mac M1 is with 8 GB of RAM, give at least 6 of them to the virtual machine, and if it is with 16 GB of RAM, allocate 8 GB or, preferably, 12 GB to the virtual machine. Do the same thing with the processor cores.
    • Note that the official minimum system requirements for Far Cry 6 state that you need at least 8 GB of RAM to run the game. This means that if you allocate less than that to the virtual machine, you may not be able to run Far Cry 6 in it. That said, if your Mac has only 8 GB of RAM and you allocate all of it to the virtual machine, this could make your Mac unstable, and you will likely not be able to use your macOS while the virtual machine is active. In such cases we really can’t tell you what the better option is, so you’d have to try both options and see for yourself. You can still customize the virtual machine settings after it’s installed.
  15. Once you’ve finished customizing the Windows 10 configuration settings, exit the Window, and the installation of the virtual machine will begin. You will be asked several times to provide various permissions – click OK on every permission request that shows up, and you will soon have the virtual machine ready for use.

After Parallels completes the installation of the Windows 10 virtual machine, the latter will open on your Mac just like any other app (albeit a very demanding app). You can switch between it and your macOS using the Command + Tab keyboard combination at any time, without the need to restart anything.

You can also pause Parallels/the virtual machine if you don’t want to close it but won’t be using it for a while and don’t want it to needlessly use up system resources. To pause Parallels, go to your macOS, click the Parallels icon that should be in the left part of the menu bar, then select Actions, and click on Pause. You can unpause it at any time from the same menu or by switching to the virtual machine and then clicking the big pause button in the center of the screen.

Finally, to quit Parallels, switch to the virtual machine, open the Windows Start Menu, then select the Power button, and click on Shut Down.

Now that you’ve set up Windows 10 on your Mac using Parallels and know how to use it, it is time to install Far Cry 6 in it.

Installing Far Cry 6

Regardless of whether you used Parallels to set up a Windows 10 virtual machine on your Mac or used Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10, the installation of Far Cry 6 should be done in the same way.

Once you are in the Windows 10 virtual machine/partition, go to the Epic Games page of Far Cry 6, and click on the Purchase button. If you are not logged into Epic Games’ site, you will be asked to do that – you can create an account or log in with your Google, Steam, Facebook, or Apple ID account. Once you’ve logged in, must choose a payment method, then provide your payment details, and purchase the game. Once the game has been purchased, you can download its installation file. When the file downloads, open it, and follow the steps to install the game. After the game is installed, you can start playing it by double-clicking its icon.