How to Play The Last of Us 2 on Mac (All Methods)

The Last of Us Part II is one of those unforgettable gaming experiences – emotional, brutal, and beautifully crafted. But no, it’s not available on Mac. Still, I really wanted to play it without switching systems. So I tested a few alternative methods. Here’s everything I found, and how you can do it too.

Can You Play The Last of Us 2 on Mac?

You can’t run The Last of Us 2 natively on macOS – there’s no official Mac version. But that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck. I tried a few workarounds: Boosteroid, CrossOver, and Whisky. Bootcamp could work too, in theory, but only on a handful of old Intel Macs. I didn’t test it myself – it’s not worth the trouble for most people anyway. The other methods? Much more promising.

TL;DR for each method:

Cloud Gaming (Boosteroid): Best for users who want instant access, minimal setup, and have a strong internet connection.
CrossOver: Ideal for users with newer Apple Silicon Macs (M3 Pro, Max, or higher) who want better visual quality and performance without relying on streaming.
Whisky: Good for advanced users who want a free alternative to CrossOver and don’t mind occasional bugs or tweaking.
Bootcamp: Only worth trying on specific high-end Intel Macs with discrete GPUs; otherwise, not recommended due to complexity and limitations.

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

	Boosteroid	CrossOver	Whisky	BootCamp
Requirements	≥ 15 Mbps Internet speed (Boosteroid)	M1 Pro or better (16GB RAM or more)	M1 Pro or better (16GB RAM or more)	Top-tier Intel i7 or i9 MacBook Pro or iMac
Must Own Game	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supported game stores	Steam	Steam, Epic	Steam, Epic	Steam, Epic
Ease of Use	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 expereince	4/5 – near native expereince	4/5 – near native expereince	1/5 – only a minuscule percentage of Intel Macs can run it
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 The Last of Us 2 on Mac

Alright, so here’s where we get into the actual how-to part. I’ve tested multiple ways to get The Last of Us 2 running on a Mac, and while none of them are perfect, some definitely work better than others. I’m going to walk you through each method step by step, based on exactly what I did. Whether you’re after the easiest setup or the smoothest gameplay, there’s probably an option here that’ll work for you.

Play The Last of Us 2 With Boosteroid

How to Play The Last of Us 2 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 “The Last of Us 2”, 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. The Last of Us 2 will launch directly in your browser.

Play The Last of Us 2 With CrossOver

How to Play The Last of Us 2 on Mac With CrossOver

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1.1
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 The Last of Us 2 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 The Last of Us 2 from your library.

Play The Last of Us 2 With Whisky

How to Download The Last of Us 2 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 The Last of Us 2, click Install, and launch the game when its ready.

How to Run The Last of Us 2 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 The Last of Us 2. Once that’s done, you are ready to play.

The Last of Us 2 on Mac – Performance

If you’re wondering how well each method actually performs, this section’s for you. I tested The Last of Us 2 on my Mac using all the options listed earlier, and I’ve broken down what the experience was like with each one. Frame rates, visual quality, input delay – everything that actually matters when you’re trying to enjoy a game like this. So if you need more than just setup steps before choosing a method, here’s the full breakdown of how they held up.

Streaming The Last of Us 2 on MacBook With Boosteroid

I started with cloud gaming, and honestly, it was the fastest way to jump into The Last of Us 2 on my Mac without any major setup.

Boosteroid worked surprisingly well once I made sure my connection was stable. I used a wired Ethernet setup, which helped keep latency low, and my ping stayed under 20 ms most of the time – definitely playable.

The gamepad support was solid too; I used a DualShock 4, and it synced up right away. I had to log in with my game account, but that was quick. The game felt responsive and looked sharp at 1080p.

On Wi-Fi, I noticed a bit more input lag, but nothing game-breaking. As long as your internet holds steady and you meet the basic requirements, this method is super convenient. For anyone who doesn’t want to deal with complex installs or compatibility layers, cloud gaming was the easiest way to get started.

Running The Last of Us 2 on Mac With CrossOver and Whisky

Performance through CrossOver and Whisky on Mac has been surprisingly solid – especially on newer hardware. On my M3 Max, The Last of Us 2 runs at 40–50 FPS on very high settings at native resolution, and with FSR and medium settings, it pushes close to 100 FPS in lighter scenes.

Whisky performs similarly but tends to have more quirks and stability issues, so I leaned on CrossOver for consistent testing. On the M4 Pro, I saw stable 45–50 FPS on high settings, though FSR controls were sometimes locked or glitchy. Based on these results, I’d expect strong performance on the M3 Pro too – likely around 35–50 FPS on medium-to-high settings.

Lower-end devices like the base M1 or M2 with 16GB RAM will struggle. Reports suggest unstable FPS, frequent dips below 30, and potential crashes due to memory leaks or swap usage.

On the other hand, top-tier devices like Mac Studio with M3 Ultra or high-memory configs could easily maintain 60+ FPS with FSR and better headroom for multitasking.

No matter the machine, running on macOS 15.4 and setting the ROSETTA_ADVERTISE_AVX=1 flag is critical. It’s still a workaround-heavy setup, but the game is absolutely playable with the right tweaks.

Download The Last of Us 2 on Mac With BootCamp – Is it Even Worth It?

Running The Last of Us 2 on Intel-based Macs through Bootcamp is theoretically possible, but only on a very narrow range of high-end machines.

You’d need something like a 2019 iMac or MacBook Pro with a dedicated AMD Radeon GPU (e.g., 5500XT or better) and at least 16 GB of RAM. Even then, performance would likely hover around 30 FPS on low-to-medium settings, with long load times due to thermal constraints and aging architecture.

The game also requires an SSD and a CPU with AVX/F16C instruction support, which rules out most older models.

While Bootcamp offers native Windows compatibility, it’s rarely worth the hassle today. Cloud gaming, especially through Boosteroid, provides a much smoother and more accessible experience without stressing aging Intel Mac hardware.

The Last of Us 2 on Mac – Conclusion

If you’re on a Mac and itching to play The Last of Us 2, it’s definitely doable. It’s not plug-and-play, but with the right method, it works.

For most people, cloud gaming is the easiest path. If you’ve got newer Apple Silicon and don’t mind some setup, CrossOver is seriously impressive. Whisky’s fine too, just a bit rough around the edges. And Bootcamp? Only if you’re rocking one of the few rare Intel Macs that can handle it. Either way, it’s wild that this game runs at all on macOS – and honestly, it runs better than I expected.