A modding project called FX Steam Launcher is now allowing Windows games to run on Apple Mac devices through Valve’s SteamOS. The project uses the ARM64 version of SteamOS, designed for the Steam Frame VR headset.
Although gaming on macOS has seen great improvements lately, many games remain exclusive to Windows machines, which makes mods such as this one look tempting to Apple owners. FX Steam Launcher basically runs SteamOS inside a virtual machine on Mac devices, meaning no major system modifications are required; you can simply install games and play them.
Most notably, unlike other SteamOS implementations, which often rely on the handheld version of Valve’s operating system, FX Steam Launcher uses the Steam Frame’s Arm-compatible version instead. It downloads directly from the official Valve servers and installs inside a lightweight VM on Hypervisor.framework (libkrun) with GPU acceleration via Venus. This allows users to run games on SteamOS, including Windows titles through the Proton and FEX translation layers, while retaining access to macOS.
FX Steam Launcher supports DirectX 9, 10, and 11 games using DXVK, while DirectX 12 games rely on VKD3D-Proton, with graphics instructions passing through Mesa Venus, MoltenVK, or KosmicKrisp (an alternative Vulkan driver) before reaching Apple’s Metal API. Understandably, games that rely on anti-cheat systems blocked by VMs will not work with this setup.
At the moment, the project requires Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 15 or newer, with KosmicKrisp (for DirectX 12_0 games) requiring macOS 26 or later. Speaking of which, Games requiring DirectX feature level 12_1 or Shader Model 6.6 remain unsupported.
Performance-wise, ETA Prime on YouTube tested FX Steam Launcher on a MacBook Pro equipped with an Apple M4 Max. The channel found that while some games refused to launch, those that worked did so quite well. He measured above 70fps in Stellar Blade at 800p with High settings, 60fps capped in Fallout 4 at 1080p with Medium settings, around 100fps in GTA IV at 1080p with Medium settings, and 70fps in The Witcher 3 at 1080p with High settings. That said, the latter had some issues rendering trees. You can check supported games based on user-shared data here.
ETA Prime also noted that total system RAM usage reached 27GB, with approximately 19GB allocated to the VM. As a reminder, this machine features a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU and 36GB of unified memory.
FX Steam Launcher is potentially a useful addition for Apple Macs, albeit an unofficial one, removing one of their weak points compared to Windows machines. While we would love to see an official alternative too, which could benefit from deeper Apple optimisation, the current implementation looks good enough for many gamers.
