macOS has come a long way in recent years when it comes to playing games. Apple has been very keen to highlight that despite Macs typically not having a separate GPU, technologies like Metal alongside the GPU built into Apple’s system on a chip on M-series Macs make them very capable game machines. At WWDC in June 2024, the company trailed upcoming games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Resident Evil 2. However, there are still many games that are not natively compatible with macOS, including Lethal Company. So, in this article, we’ll show you how to play Lethal Company on your Mac.
What is Lethal Company?
Lethal Company is a cooperative first-person shooter in the horror genre. The premise is that you play as a contracted worker for The Company, and your job is to collect scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons. You can earn money and use it to buy things to help you achieve your goals. But the key is teamwork and working with other players to ensure you meet your quota and avoid the consequences of failure.
Can you play Lethal Company on a Mac?
So, is Lethal Company on Mac available? Yes and no. There is currently no Mac-native version of Lethal Company, and it doesn’t look like one is coming soon. So, you can’t just log in to your Steam account, download it, and start playing. There are, however, a few options for playing it on Mac:
- Boot Camp (if you have an Intel-based Mac)
- Parallels Desktop
- CrossOver
- A cloud-based gaming service
Each of the options above has its pros and cons, and we’ll take you through them.
How to play Lethal Company on Mac
Now, let’s walk you through all the options for playing Lethal Company on Mac.
Boot Camp
The most obvious drawback of this method is that Boot Camp only works on Intel-based Macs. Another is that you will need a copy of Windows to install on the Boot Camp partition. However, if you have an Intel-based Mac, it’s as simple as launching Boot Camp Assistant, creating a partition, and installing Windows on it. Once you’ve done that, you can boot into Windows, open a web browser, and download Lethal Company from your Steam account.
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop is virtualization software that allows you to run a separate operating system alongside macOS. It has the advantage over Boot Camp in that it works on both Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs and that you don’t have to reboot your Mac every time you want to play a Windows game like Lethal Company. The disadvantage is that you have to buy Parallels Desktop, and you will still need your own copy of Windows. On Intel-based Macs, this method is also likely to be slower than Boot Camp.
Parallels Desktop comes in different versions. The standard version has a ‘games only’ mode which configures settings like RAM and CPU usage for game playing. The Business and Professional versions give you more control of exactly how much of your Mac’s RAM and CPU resources you allocate to Parallels.
Once you install Parallels Desktop, it walks you through the process of creating a virtual machine and installing Windows on it. You can then log into Steam and download Lethal Company.
CrossOver
CrossOver is a compatibility layer that, once installed on your Mac, allows you to play Windows games. It’s based on open source software called Wine and allows you to create bottles to enable compatibility with different operating systems. That way, you can install Windows software without having to install Windows itself.
There are other Wine-based tools available, such as PlayOnMac and Whisky. Unlike CrossOver, which is paid for but has a free 14-day trial, these are free. However, CrossOver has the advantage in that it has been specifically optimized for gaming by incorporating Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit. Codeweavers, the company that makes CrossOver, has also publicly said that Lethal Company will run in CrossOver. Here’s how to use it:
- Download CrossOver here.
- Install CrossOver and open it.
- Search for Steam.
- Install Steam in CrossOver.
- When Steam is installed, log in to your account.
- Search for Lethal Company and purchase it, then install it from Steam.
Cloud gaming
While you won’t be able to use NVidia’s GeForce cloud gaming service to play Lethal Company on your Mac, there are a few cloud gaming services that do support it. These include Boosteroid, Shadow, and airgpu. Using a cloud gaming service means that you ‘rent’ a PC in the cloud on which to play a game. The benefit is that it doesn’t matter whether the game runs natively on your own computer or how fast your own computer is; you rent a PC that has the spec needed to play the game. The only limitation is the speed of your internet connection.
How to maintain your Mac
Running any game on your Mac places heavy demands on its resources like CPU, GPU, and RAM. Those demands are even greater when you need to install Windows or a compatibility layer as well as the game itself. So, it’s essential to keep your Mac running smoothly and as fast as possible.
One of the best ways to do that is to carry out maintenance tasks like running macOS maintenance scripts, reindexing Spotlight, freeing up RAM, and clearing DNS cache. Doing all that manually, though, is time-consuming and difficult. And that’s where CleanMyMac X’s Maintenance module comes into play. It can run all those tasks, as well as thin out Time Machine, repair disk permissions, and speed up Mail, with just a couple of clicks.
You can download CleanMyMac X for free here. Then, install the app and follow these steps:
- Open CleanMyMac X.
- Click Maintenance in the sidebar.
- Select the tasks you want to perform and click Run.
Hopefully, you no longer ask yourself, “Is Lethal Company available on Mac?” The fact that it is not natively compatible with macOS doesn’t mean you can’t play it. As we’ve shown, there are a number of options for doing just that. Choose the one that works best for you and get started playing Lethal Company on your Mac.
