TL;DR – Methods to play NBA 2K25
- Boosteroid: Best for casual players who want a fast, hassle-free setup with solid visuals. Great if you’re on an older Mac or just don’t want to mess with hardware.
- xCloud: Perfect if you already have Game Pass Ultimate and want quick access without extra costs, but okay with lower graphics and no keyboard support.
- Boot Camp: Ideal for Intel Mac users who want the most native-like experience and don’t mind a longer setup process.
NBA 2K25 is finally here, and of course I wanted to see if I could run it on my Mac. Spoiler: it’s not natively supported. But there are other ways to play it, and I’ve spent hours testing each method. Here’s everything I learned, in plain English.
Can You Play NBA 2K25 on Mac?
Short answer? Not natively. There’s no official Mac version of NBA 2K25, and if you’re hoping for one, don’t hold your breath. But that doesn’t mean you’re completely locked out – far from it. I tried out three solid workarounds: Boosteroid, Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud), and Boot Camp. Each has its own pros, quirks, and ideal use cases, depending on what you’re working with.
- Boosteroid was the fastest way in. You just stream the game through your browser, no downloads, no stress. It actually ran in 4K at 120 FPS – yeah, I didn’t expect that either. Plus, since it’s cloud-based, your device doesn’t even matter. I tried it on a MacBook Air and it ran just as well as on my desktop.
- XCloud through Game Pass Ultimate was super easy to use too. The downside? No 4K or 120 FPS, and no keyboard and mouse support. Still, if you already have Game Pass, it’s a no-brainer for casual play. You get access to a bunch of other games too.
- Boot Camp was a different beast. It’s the only way to run the game locally, but only works on Intel Macs. Setup took a while, and you’re stuck with your Mac’s hardware limitations – but once it’s up, the experience is the closest to running the game natively.
So yeah, Mac’s not totally out of the game. You’ve just gotta get creative.
Click here for a more detailed breakdown of all the methods.
| Boosteroid and XCloud | BootCamp | |
| Requirements | ≥ 15 Mbps Internet speed (Boosteroid) ≥ 25 Mbps Internet speed (GFN) | Maxed-out iMac or Mac Pro with 4 GB GPU |
| Must Own Game | Yes | Yes |
| Supported game stores | Steam | Steam |
| Setup Difficulty | 1/5 – 🍼 Child’s Play | 3/5 – 🎯 Some Focus Required |
| Time to Set Up | ~ 10 min | ~ 1-2 hours |
| Performance | 4/5 – near native experience | 1/5 – only a minuscule percentage of Intel Macs can run it |
| Stability | 4/5 – only minor hiccups | 5/5 – very stable with powerful enough Macs |
Now let’s move on to how to use those methods.
How to Play NBA 2K25 on Mac
Alright, so now that we know NBA 2K25 isn’t native to macOS but still totally playable, let’s break down exactly how to get it running. I’ve tested all three methods myself, ran into a few hiccups, and figured out what works best. Whether you want something fast and cloud-based or prefer a more traditional setup, I’ve got you covered. Below, I’ll walk you through each method step by step – Boosteroid, xCloud, and Boot Camp – so you can pick what suits you best.
We Recommend:
🎮 This is the best value we found for NBA 2K25. It is our Editor’s Choice for this game, which we verify independently every time (see our Editorial Policy for our methodology).🎮
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You can play NBA 2K25 for a total of $11 without buying it. If you don’t like it you can play over 100 other games with Boosteroid + PC Game Pass. NBA 2K25 costs $50 full-price on Steam.
✔️ Over a hundred freely accessible titles with PC Game Pass. See the list of games here.
✔️ Up to 4K, 120FPS streaming quality and ray tracing, with Boosteroid Cloud Gaming.
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| Click to Get Boosteroid | $9.89 /month; $7.50 /mo if bought annually | Up to 4K/120 FPS with Ray-tracing and FSR |
| Click to Get PC Game Pass | $1 for 14 days, $11.99 /month later | Unlimited access to hundreds of gaming titles. |
How to Play NBA 2K25 on Mac With Boosteroid and Xbox Game Pass
- 1.1Click the Boosteroid button above. Create an account or sign up with Google.
- 1.2Go to your profile page(top-right), click Subscribe, select a preferred plan, and start your subscription.
- 1.3👉 Complete this step if you don’t already own NBA 2K25 and want to get it with Xbox Game Pass:
► Click the Xbox Game Pass button above, click on Join Now under the PC Game Pass plan, then log in with your Microsoft account, and select a payment method to start your subscription.► If you don’t already have a Microsoft account, you’ll first need to create one to continue.
- 1.4In Boosteroid, search for “NBA 2K25” and click Play (or Install and Play) under your preferred version of the game.
👇 If you subscribed to the Xbox Game Pass, choose the Xbox version. 👇
- 1.5Click OK, Let’s go, and wait for the game to load.
- 1.6Log into your game store account. NBA 2K25 will launch directly in your browser.
How to Play NBA 2K25 on Mac With Xbox Cloud Gaming
- 1.1Download Microsoft Edge (the best browser for XCloud).
- 1.2Open Edge, click the provided XCloud link, sign up, and subscribe to the Game Pass Ultimate plan.
- 1.3If you have a game controller, connect it to your Mac.
- 1.4If you don’t have a controller, install this Edge extension, pin it to your Toolbar, and turn it on before starting the game.
- 1.5Search for NBA 2K25 in the XCloud site and click Play.
- 1.6If you are using the Mouse and keyboard extension, click the center of your screen when the game starts to enable it.
- 1.7When the game loads, you can start playing.
How to Run NBA 2K25 on Mac With Bootcamp
- 1.1Head to Microsoft’s official site and download the latest Windows 10 ISO file.
- 1.2Next, open Boot Camp Assistant (found in Applications > Utilities), click Continue → Choose, pick your downloaded Windows ISO file, then click Open.
- 1.3Adjust the slider to give your Windows partition at least 50 GB storage, then click Install → Next.
- 1.4The 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.
- 1.5Once Windows is installed and set up, download Steam, install it, and use it to download NBA 2K25. Once that’s done, you are ready to play.
NBA 2K25 on Mac – Conclusion
Boosteroid: Best for casual players who want a fast, hassle-free setup with solid visuals. Great if you’re on an older Mac or just don’t want to mess with hardware.
xCloud: Perfect if you already have Game Pass Ultimate and want quick access without extra costs, but okay with lower graphics and no keyboard support.
Boot Camp: Ideal for Intel Mac users who want the most native-like experience and don’t mind a longer setup process.