After a lengthy wait, Steam for Mac is now finally a native app for Apple Silicon. Valve has quietly released this new version as part of a beta update, and it’s available for you to test right now.
Previously, Steam operated solely through Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon Macs. For many users, this resulted in added overhead, diminished performance, and an overall cumbersome experience, particularly in the Chromium-based UI that operates much of the Steam client.
As Rosetta 2 approaches its end of life, Steam is finally making a significant transition.
Enhanced speed, smoothness, and true native performance
The new beta version of Steam is now a fully optimized Universal app. This means significantly faster launch times, improved scrolling and navigation, and a more fluid experience when accessing Store and Community pages.
Internally, the primary change is that Valve has transitioned the Chromium Embedded Framework from Intel-only to Apple Silicon, eliminating one of the major performance bottlenecks within the app.
Considering how sluggish the client felt before, users should notice an immediate improvement. Actions as simple as loading your Library or switching tabs will now feel much more seamless.
Check out Andrew Tsai’s performance comparison between the two:
Steps to access the beta version
If you’re keen to try the native version today, follow these steps to opt in:
- Launch the Steam app on your Mac.
- In the menu bar, select Steam > Settings > Interface.
- Locate the Beta Participation section and select Steam Beta Update from the dropdown menu.
- Restart Steam to download the updated version (approximately 230MB).
- Verify that you are using the native version by checking Activity Monitor — it should indicate Steam as “Kind: Apple”.
Perfect timing for the update
This update arrives at a critical time: just this week, Apple announced that Rosetta 2 will be deprecated in an upcoming macOS version. Without timely updates, Intel-only applications like Steam could eventually become non-functional.
Apple has stated that Rosetta 2 will still be available in some form to assist older or unmaintained games, but how this will affect app launchers like Steam remains uncertain, especially with Apple now promoting its own Game Porting Toolkit 2.
Here’s Apple’s official announcement:
macOS Tahoe will be the final release for Intel-based Mac systems. These devices will continue to receive security updates for three years.
Rosetta was created to simplify the transition to Apple silicon, and we plan to keep it available for the next two major macOS releases – until macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps, allowing developers to finalize the migration of their applications. Beyond this period, we will maintain a limited subset of Rosetta functionality to support older unmaintained gaming titles reliant on Intel-based frameworks.
Are you trying out the beta? Have you observed any changes? Share your thoughts in the comments.
