Apple has spent the last few years improving the way games run on their devices, from iPhones, to iPads, to Macs. We see this shift in strategy through services like Apple Arcade, which lets users pay monthly for access to a bunch of exclusive mobile and arcade-style games. With the advent of Apple silicon, iPhones, iPads, and Macs alike are capable of playing AAA titles on-device. We've also seen features like Game Mode improve performance on the best Macs, and software tools such as the Game Porting Toolkit make it easier for developers to port their games to macOS.

The company isn't slowing down. macOS Sequoia is set to be released this fall, and all eyes are on Apple Intelligence, but there are a handful of useful improvements coming to the platform that will make it better for gamers. The problem with gaming on macOS has always been game support, and it's still something to consider. However, there are some great AAA titles that will be available day-one on the Mac — like the next iteration of Assassin's Creed — so Apple is making improvements on that front, too. At a gaming showcase with Apple last week, I got to take a look at six new things that are coming to macOS Sequoia later this year.

6 Mac App Store improvements

It's easier, and requires less space, to download large AAA titles

I spotted a minor detail in the macOS Sequoia developer beta 2 release notes that revealed a change in behavior: the App Store no longer requires twice an app's size in free space to install it. At the time, the reasoning behind this change wasn't clear. As it turns out, Apple made this tweak with gaming in mind, and it makes perfect sense. High-quality games carry extremely large file sizes, sometimes in the hundreds of gigabytes. Previously, the Mac App Store required roughly double the size of an app to be available, so you needed 200GB of free space to download a 100GB game. That made large app downloads tricky.

Now, the App Store in macOS Sequoia requires the exact size of an app — plus a tiny bit of additional storage — to be free to complete an installation. This will make it easier to install AAA gaming titles with giant file sizes. There are other quality-of-life improvements, too, such as support for installing games on external drives. The App Store will now show the time and size remaining for their game download, and there's a more user-friendly way to pause and resume downloads. All these tiny App Store tweaks will make it more the process of installing Mac games more efficient starting this fall.

5 Game Mode

This year's macOS update brings tweaks that'll result in higher frame rates

The big news about Game Mode this year is that it's coming to the iPhone and iPad, following its launch on the Mac with macOS Sonoma. The entire point of this feature is to limit everything else that your Mac is handling and to focus performance on the game you're trying to play. Mac users will find that Game Mode will be more effective while running Sequoia, and they might see higher frame rates as a result. The changes to Game Mode on the Mac aren't visible to end users, but the performance gains might be.

4 Personalized Spatial Audio

Yes, you'll be able to hear supported games in a spatial experience

If you're a fan of Spatial Audio on AirPods, you'll be happy to know that the experience is coming to Mac gaming. Games will need to support Personalized Spatial Audio, but the ones that do can play audio that's catered to your personal profile. This should result in a personalized, surround-sound-like experience that is more immersive.

You'll get even more audio features if you happen to own a pair of second-generation AirPods Pro. When a pair of AirPods Pro 2 is connected to a Mac, and you're gaming, you'll get lower latency. If you decide to use voice chat while gaming, you can experience 16bit, 48KHz high-quality game audio. This shouldn't be all that surprising, because the AirPods Pro 2 have an updated version of the H2 chip that makes this kind of quality possible. Before high-quality and low-latency audio came to AirPods Pro 2 and the Mac, it was available via AirPods Pro 2 and Apple Vision Pro's combined lossless audio support.

3 Unified Gaming Platform

This is how Apple plans to make iOS, iPadOS, and macOS more appealing to game devs

As we mentioned earlier, Apple's biggest hurdle to overcome is macOS game support. When developers pick which platforms to develop for, they'll often choose PC, Xbox, and PlayStation before macOS or Linux even enter the conversation. However, Apple's pitch is a unified gaming platform. Now that iPhones, iPads, and Macs, all use Apple silicon systems-on-a-chips, developers can port their games to the unified gaming platform and reach upwards of a billion active devices. Of course, the only devices that can play AAA titles have M-series chips, or the A17 Pro. But more and more devices will be capable of tapping into games released on the unified platform in the future, so it's very appealing to developers.

There are benefits for the end user, too. Some games support cross-progression, like those with Universal Connect, like Assassin's Creed: Mirage. That means you can start a game on your Mac and pick up right where you left off on your iPhone, for example. For the games that support universal purchase, you can pay once to enjoy the title across Apple's platforms. If you're deep into the Apple ecosystem, this so-called universal gaming platform is something to watch — and to root for. If it catches on, the gaming experience on macOS will get a lot better.

2 Game Porting Toolkit 2

It's more powerful, supporting the AVX2 instruction set and ray tracing

Out of all the gaming announcements at WWDC, the one I was most excited about was the Game Porting Toolkit 2. For those unfamiliar, the Game Porting Toolkit provides everything developers need to port their Windows games to Apple silicon and macOS. I saw a demo of the new Game Porting Toolkit 2 in action using CrossOver, and the results were impressive. The graphics looked sharp, there were convincing shadows and reflections, and gameplay was smooth. Plus, the GPTK2 won't just improve the quality of game porting — it'll actually add compatibility for more games. It now works with the AVX2 instruction set, and officially supports ray tracing. Enthusiasts that want to fire up Windows games on their Mac with tools like CrossOver and Whisky are going to have a great time with GPTK 2 and macOS Sequoia.

1 Better game support

There are some truly great games headed to the Mac in the coming months

I'm really looking forward to finding out what Windows games will run on Apple silicon with the GPTK2, but realistically speaking, most average Mac users probably won't mess with it. That's why the more important detail is that there are highly-sought games coming to macOS Sequoia natively. Users will be able to play them on their computers no problem, and I got to try a few of them in early access. I know that Assassin's Creed fans will be happy to know that Assassin's Creed: Shadows will be available day-one on the Mac starting Nov. 15, which is when it'll also debut on PCs and current-gen consoles. Palworld already set records on Steam, and it's coming to macOS this year — as soon as this summer. The Resident Evil 2 remake and Frostpunk 2 will be there as well, with the latter set for a Sept. 20 launch date.

That's in addition to the games that are already available, like Assasin's Creed: Mirage, Resident Evil: Village, and Resident Evil 7. You're still not going to be buying a Mac for gaming, but it's clear that game support for macOS is getting definitively better. That's something to be excited about.

When can you start using these new features?

Apple is making strides with gaming on the Mac, and you can try out some of the new features now by downloading the macOS Sequoia public beta. However, we recommend waiting until the fall when macOS Sequoia releases officially to the public. That's when all of these features will be available, although you might have to wait a bit longer for some games. Still, there's a lot to like about this upgrade if you're a gamer, and I personally can't wait for it.