Best Shooter Games for Mac

Metro Exodus 

Metro Exodus slaps you into the familiar gasmask of Artyom and sends you on a long and treacherous adventure across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The game is a stark deviation from its predecessors’ claustrophobic subway confines. There’s still some tunnel-dwelling in Exodus, but the bulk of the gameplay is out in the open. We think this change pays off because it adds much-needed variety to the game and it also enhances the gameplay.

Unlike its underground-bound siblings, Exodus sends you scavenging across parched deserts, thick forests, and decrepit towns. You travel from one area to the next aboard a creaky train and each of these areas plays like a mini open-world. 

Its gameplay pivots on a mix of stealth and shooty-bang joy, which amounts to a compelling rhythm. You’ll either skulk in the shadows or go guns blazing, but you must always remember that every bullet and bloodthirsty mutants can be lurking behind every rock and bush.

Game	Metro Exodus
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce Now
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Open World, Post-apocalyptic
Multiplayer	No
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes
Performance on Mac	(The game runs well on all Apple Silicon Macs and on mid and high-range Intel Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The game’s narrative isn’t just Artyom’s diary of woes but a woven tapestry of survival and humanity. Each railway stop introduces new characters and dramas you must resolve before you move on to the next location. Exodus surprised us with how masterfully it blends linear storytelling with open-world-esque sections, enveloped in a post-nuclear winter so palpable, you’ll be brushing imaginary ash off your collar.

Metro Exodus could well be a near-perfect single-player atmospheric FPS experience. It’s got the gameplay, story, setting, and atmosphere to keep you hooked throughout its entire duration and to make you revisit it every now and then for a replay. We regard it very highly, recommending it as one of the best shooting games for mac.

BioShock Remastered

BioShock Remastered throws you into the dystopian underwater depths of the dystopian city of Rapture, where the décor is Art Deco and the locals are as stable as a two-legged chair on a submarine. This first-person shooter game is as much about the shooting as it is about its story and setting. 

The environment in BioShock is as much a character as the wide-eyed splicers trying to redecorate your face. And to fight off those buggers, you’ll spend your time managing a toolbox of genetic modifications and weaponry. You start with an unassuming wrench that barely gets you through the initial enemies that look like drugged hoboes, but you eventually end up with experimental weaponry and crazy plasmids (those are like sci-fi versions of warlock spells) that let you swarm your enemies with bees or electrocute them.

Game	BioShock Remastered
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Action, Atmospheric, Story Rich
Multiplayer	No
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (Mostly visual improvements)
Performance on Mac	(The game runs great even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The game is a juggernaut of storytelling: it melds immersive, environmental narrative with tight, corridor-style gameplay that forces you to strategize using both bullets and brains. Every corner of Rapture tells a story, filled with audio logs that piece together a grand, tragic narrative. It’s a survival-horror, puzzler, and shooter rolled into one soggy, yet sparkling package. 

Unique isn’t just a buzzword here; it’s a commitment to marrying narrative depth with intense, adaptive combat that makes you rethink your approach to both enemies and allegiances every dripping step of the way.

Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is a multiplayer FPS that plays like an MMO. Think looting and shooting with a thousand internet friends all jazzed up on Mountain Dew and the promise of epic gear. You and your mates will hop across solar systems, and gun down aliens and epic big bosses. 

The gunplay and teamwork components are top-tier and they’ll keep you going back again and again to face the next challenge. Most of the time, your end-goal will be the shiny new gear but Destiny 2 is also worth it for its solid story and deep lore. Don’t expect a story on the same level as single-player titles like BioShock or Half-Life, but for an FPS MMO, Destiny 2’s narrative is solid and we like it.

Game	Destiny 2
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce now, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Open World, Looter Shooter
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(The game is free-to-play, but there’s additional content that can be purchased)

But let’s be honest, the main draw of this game, the thing that truly defines Destiny 2, is the multiplayer. We are talking cooperative raids that demand tight teamwork and competitive matches where you can showcase your hard-earned exotics. It’s the typical MMO experience but played from a first-person perspective, with rapid-firing weapons and tight gunplay. It’s a combination that works out great in Destiny 2 and since the base game can be played for free, there’s really no reason not to check it out.

Paladins

Paladins isn’t the biggest or loudest among the hero shooter arena games, but it’s lowkey one of the unique-est. It sets itself apart with a collectible card system that dictates its character customization which may sound gimmicky but actually works wonders to diversify the game. 

Each match in Paladins lets you modify your hero’s skills on the fly so you can have a tailor-made approach to combat that adds a strategic layer that’s simply missing from pretty much all other multiplayer FPS titles. And, of course, there’s the mandatory colorful roster of characters that spans gun-toting goblins, mystical elves, and all sorts of other wacky characters, each with unique abilities and roles – DPS, tanks, healers, you know the drill.

Game	Paladins
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce now, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Action, Competitive
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free-to-play with In-game purchases)

The default matches are played in 5v5 so teamwork is critical. The core gameplay modes include capturing objectives and pushing payloads so it’s not only about killing the enemy but also coordinating with your teammates and adapting to the evolving battlefield.

Paladins has been around for a good while but it has somehow always lain low and lacked the mass apparel of Overwatch or Valorant. However, we’d argue that Paladins does a better job at being a varied and fun hero shooter than either of those bigger titles. It’s a great game without any exaggeration on our side, so you gotta give it a try if hero shooters are your thing.

Xonotic

Xonotic slaps you with a nostalgia stick so hard you might forget which decade it is. This game delivers an arena shooter experience that harkens back to the days when dial-up was king and “streaming” didn’t exist. This isn’t your modern shooter with a slow burn build-up, but a caffeine shot straight to the veins. It’s all about the undistilled joy of engaging in unhinged, high-speed combat that could make a hummingbird look sluggish. 

In Xonotic, the players dart around labyrinthine maps with designs that call back to classics like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. You pick your weapons and power-ups from the ground before the enemy does and thus arm yourself with laser rifles, rocket launchers, machine guns, and everything in-between. Each weapon feels different and mastering them all is the key to scoring more kills than your opponents.

Game	Xonotic
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS, Linux
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Action, Arena Shooter
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	Yes
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs great even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free-to-play)

Needless to say, Xonotic is all about that multiplayer. The game pitches you against others in a frantic scramble for dominance over various modes revived from the glorious days of arena shooters (also known as boomer shooters). We are talking deathmatch, capture the flag, and the domination – all that good stuff. 

A key element of the gameplay is the movement system. If you were born before the year 2000, you might be familiar with terms like bunny hopping, strafe jumping, and laser-jump – all of that is implemented here and it works wonders to further diversify the already frantic gameplay. Mastering the movement is just as important as mastering the guns, and both are needed to get your opponents salty about being forced to respawn time and time again.

Valorant

Valorant takes the traditional tactical shooter, twists it into a pretzel of supernatural abilities, and serves it on a platter of hyper-competitive gameplay. Think of it as a Riot Games’ free-to-play alternative to Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 and Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 that heavily borrows elements from both, yet somehow the resulting experience is unique enough to feel like something you haven’t played before.

Here’s how it works in Valorant: you pick from a roster of agents with cool powers like the ability to shield teammates, blind foes, or even resurrect the fallen. This part of Valorant is a bit like Overwatch, but the rest of the gameplay is a lot more grounded, because most of the time you’ll still be fighting with regular SMGs and assault rifles similar to the gameplay in Counter-Strike. The result is an interesting and unfamiliar mix of familiar elements: the precision gunplay of tactical shooters with the wild card element of magic tricks.

Game	Valorant
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter, Strategy, MOBA
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free-to-play with microtransactions for cosmetic items)

The matches are tight and quick and consist of multiple rounds where one team attempts to plant a bomb (the Spike) and the other tries to stop them or defuse the thing. Yes, it’s like CS, but then you, but then you add the unique abilities of each agent, and regular shootouts suddenly become much more exciting and even more tactically demanding. The need to juggle tight gunplay with ability usage turns each round into a chess match with bullets, where each second of each match is filled with tension. 

I guess what we are trying to say is that this is a good game. Maybe it leans too hard on the competitive side, but it’s still a well-executed and thought-out title and one that’s totally free to play.

Prodeus

Prodeus is the video game equivalent of a heavy metal album cover from the 90s—it’s loud, brash, and unapologetically bloody – just the way we like ‘em. It takes the classic first-person shooter formula and injects it with a steroid cocktail of modern graphics and old-school style. The game’s unique draw is its retro aesthetic that’s combined with high-fidelity visuals, so what you end up with is chunky pixels that bleed modern lighting effects and gore that splatters your screen like a Jackson Pollock painting gone homicidal.

In a game with old-school-inspired aesthetics, it only makes sense to expect old-school gameplay. Prodeus hands you an arsenal of overpowered weaponry and sets you loose in labyrinthine levels to face hordes of demonic enemies that need to be shot, exploded, or otherwise violently redecorated. If this type of gameplay invokes Doom 2 imagery in your head, then you’ve got the right idea. It’s non-stop action with barely a moment when you are not blasting through waves of different types of abominations amidst explosions and flying viscera.

Game	Prodeus
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Boomer shooter, Action, Retro, Gore
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (Few visual mods)
Performance on Mac	(The game runs great even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The signature of Prodeus is undeniably the way it brings together old and new and makes both of them better in the process. Every firefight is like a nostalgic trip through the golden age of shooters, but with enough polish to keep it exciting today.

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 isn’t just a shooter but a loot piñata masquerading as a cel-shaded Mad Max theme park. You are a vault hunter who landed on the alien planet Pandora. You aren’t there for sightseeing but to dig up treasure and generally disrupt local villain, Handsome Jack’s, entrepreneurial ventures.

Borderlands 2’s gameplay is a frenetic mix of shooting anything that moves and scavenging gear from its cooling corpses. The guns in this game are one of its biggest selling points. Thanks to procedural generation, there’s a virtually limitless variety of guns in Borderlands 2. And then there are the more special ones that are less guns and more characters – talking, flaming, occasionally sulking characters that come in endless randomized varieties, each with unique stats and quirks.

Game	Borderlands 2
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3/4/Vita Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Looter shooter, Role-playing, Action
Multiplayer	Yes (Online Co-op)
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes
Performance on Mac	(The game runs great even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

Borderlands 2 can be experienced solo, but multiplayer is where the chaos multiplies. You can team up with up to three other friends and make Pandora your playground of destruction and looting. The game also offers a serviceable story with tons of humor, a deranged AI, and more psychopaths than you can shake a stick at. It’s a great game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet at the same time manages to deliver a well-polished shooting and looting experience that not few other titles have come close to.

Call of Duty Warzone

Call of Duty Warzone 2 reshuffles the battle royale deck by injecting it with a dose of high-octane Call of Duty-style combat and a smorgasbord of tactical options. This is not your backyard airsoft game but a full-scale war over a massive map. It goes without saying that strategy, skill, and a dose of luck are needed to be the victor among the 150 players deploying on the shrinking. 

If you are familiar with other battle royales, then you know the drill. You parachute into the battlefield, scavenge for weapons and gear, and dispose of anyone who crosses your line of sight. If you’re not shot, blown up, or otherwise unpleasantly removed from the match, you keep moving within a shrinking play area that forces you and the other remaining players into ever-tighter skirmishes. The match then comes to a boiling point when there’s almost no room for tactical maneuvers and you and a handful of other players try to outsmart each other to be the last man standing.

Game	Call of Duty Warzone
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre	Shooter, FPS, Battle Royal, Action
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs on mid and high-range Macs, but is nearly unplayable on weaker or older Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free-to-play with microtransactions for cosmetic items)

We do need to admit that Warzone has lots of issues. Players complain about bugs, cheaters, unfair advantages for console players, and more. It’s also not the most unique or inventive Battle Royale. It does include a “Gulag” mechanic that lets fallen players fight in 1v1 matches, where the winner gets to be revived, but other than that if you’ve played Apex Legends or Fortnite, nothing here will surprise you.

Still, despite its downsides, it can be a fun experience as long as you don’t take it too seriously and accept it with its flaws. Most of its biggest critics are players who’ve sunk hundreds of hours into this game and are so involved with it that even the smallest issue sticks out like a sore thumb. But if you just play it casually (like we do), you can get some pretty fun matches. And let’s be honest, there’s hardly a more influential shooter game in the modern multiplayer landscape. For that alone we recommend it among the best shooting games for mac.

Just Cause 3

Just Cause 3 is basically a high-octane playground disguised as an action-adventure game, where physics is more a suggestion. You play as a one-man-army, Rico Rodriguez. He has a penchant for destruction and is set loose on the fictional Mediterranean island of Medici to overthrow a tyrant. From them on it’s all about destruction and mayhem with every action flick cliche you could think of.

A unique aspect of the 3d-person shooter gameplay is the unique tether system – think Spider-Man, but if he loved explosions more than Mary Jane. You’ll zip between vehicles, yank enemies off their feet, or creatively dismantle massive structures. And when it’s time to cut and run, you’ve got our trusty parachute and wingsuit. There’s, of course, plenty of shooting and blowing stuff up, but the physics engine shenanigans you can pull off in this game are the true source of its fun.

Game	Just Cause 3
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce Now, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre	Shooter, Action, Adventure, Open World
Multiplayer	No
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (Very few)
Performance on Mac	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The story here serves merely as an excuse for the ensuing chaos. It’s like the narrative is there to string together set pieces that feel like someone making a to-do list of “Ways to Blow Stuff Up.” The game’s style oozes a cheeky, irreverent vibe and never takes itself too seriously. Fitting for a game that equips you with a rocket launcher as often as a grappling hook.

So there you have it, if you are looking for a deep story and complex characters, you won’t find that here, but this list of games is called “Shooter Games for Mac” for a reason, and you’ll find plenty of shooting and explosions of the highest caliber in Just Cause 3.

Notable Mentions

There’s a lot of these here. Shooters are by far the most popular and kinetic genre in gaming. It shows that we can hardly make a list and not include other titles, since we need to take into consideration how the game performs on macs and its own other merits. Here are our additions, in no order:

• Apex Legends
• Borderlands 3
• Deathloop

Feel free to browse around for some of our other selections! We don’t limit ourselves to native mac ports only. We include all playable methods in the table section for each game.