How to play The Forest on Mac

Is it possible to play The Forest on Mac?

The Forest is a popular first-person action game, that can be classified as a survival and horror simulator. It was released for the Windows platform on Steam in 2018. Since it is not a very “resource-consuming” game many MacOS machines could run it easily, however, no Mac version was released to date. But don’t be upset, there are still several cool possibilities to run your favorite game without buying a new Windows computer. In the article below, we will describe several simple ways to make The Forest run on any MacOS or even Android device.

System Requirements

Minimal Recommended
OS: Windows 7 OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz Processor: Quad Core Processor
RAM: 4 GB RAM: 4 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
DirectX: from 9.0 version DirectX: from 9.0 version
Disc space: 5 GB Disc space: 5 GB

Play The Forest on Mac with Parallels

the forest on mac

The Forest does not require lots of PC resources, so if you have a decent Mac configuration you can install Windows on Mac with help of Parallels Desktop. This is software for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. You can run Windows just like on a regular PC, install Steam and enjoy The Forest game on Mac.

Download Parallels Desktop

Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all versions are suitable), Mac Pro (all versions are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later currently not supported by Parallels.

Play The Forest on Mac with Boosteroid or Nvidia GeForce Now

Update: Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now fully support The Forest! Play the advanced game on an old Windows PC, Mac and Android!

If you have an old Mac, or it cannot satisfy The Forest game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming provides you with sufficient cloud resources for a fixed fee. All you need is a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 MBits/s. There are several great services, that provide such an opportunity, among the best are Boosteroid, AirGPU, and Nvidia GeForce Now. All three services have The Forest in their game catalog, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting from MacOS 10.10) and even Android! Boosteroid and Nvidia support a higher resolution (1080p), but this requires a better internet connection. Nvidia GeForce Now can even stream 4k if the game and your display support it.

Try Boosteroid Try GeForce Now

Play The Forest on Mac with BootCamp

Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run The Forest on Mac

This method is simple but time-consuming. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. BootCamp allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, that uses common processors, RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on Mac by allocating disc space of a minimum of 64 Gb (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games). To set up Windows via BootCamp, please, do the following:

For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later

Mention, that for MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create bootable Windows USB.

  1. Download Windows ISO file
  2. Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
  3. Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
  4. Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
  5. When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)