Steam for Mac is now available as native Apple Silicon app with the latest beta release

 

Steam for Mac has moved one step closer to being a native Apple Silicon program. With the current beta update, which was made available to testers on Thursday, the Steam client and its assistant program now work natively on Mac machines equipped with a M series CPU. Steam's imminent move to a Universal app should result in quicker performance and more efficient memory use than the stable version, which relies on Apple's translation (emulation) environment, allowing older programs to operate on newer Mac systems.

Steam for Mac runs directly on Apple silicon, rather than on Rosetta 2
The Steam client beta release notes, which were published on Friday, disclose that both the main Steam client and the Steam Helper software function natively on Mac models with Apple Silicon. This implies Valve has now modified the Steam app's code to operate natively on Apple Silicon processors, eliminating the requirement for Apple's Rosetta 2 environment.

Beta testers who have switched to the most recent version of Steam for Mac have observed that the native version of the software is significantly quicker than the prior version. The app now launches more quickly, and navigating to the Library, Store, and Community tabs is significantly quicker.

The Steam client uses Chromium for its UI, and the stable version of the software is incredibly slow on contemporary Mac models. However, a forthcoming update should push the native app into the stable update channel, delivering significant speed gains to all Steam users.

In the months following Apple's November 2020 announcement of the first Mac models featuring an M1 CPU, developers began to release native versions of their software for Mac computers. Many other software developers went over to Universal programs, which operate natively on Apple Silicon processors, while a few others continue to require Rosetta 2 to run on the company's latest machines.

Valve's plan to release a native version of Steam for Mac follows Apple's announcement that macOS Tahoe will be the final OS upgrade for Mac devices with Intel CPUs. An revised developer document also says that Rosetta 2 will be deprecated when macOS 28 is launched in 2027, with Apple retaining a component of its translation layer to assist older games that have not been upgraded to function on contemporary Mac models.