Is it possible to play Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on Mac?
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is an open-world action-RPG video game developed by TaleWorlds, a talented studio originating from Turkey. It is the long-awaited sequel to the famous role-playing game and medieval warfare simulator Mount & Blade: Warband. While the whole empire is set apart due to the civil war, players will have to embark on the adventure and unite with other troops to rebuild or destroy the dying empire completely. Throughout this arduous journey, players will be engaging in fights to kill or dispatch their enemies using deadly-sharp swords, axes, bows, and other melee or ranged weapons. New gear, as well as new skills, will be gained along the path to enhance your character and become stronger in upcoming clashes. If you want to feel the taste of truly medieval and bloody fights that happened a long time ago, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord should certainly be on your wishlist. For now, it is only available to play on Windows and nothing else. We know you are here to launch it on Mac, so why don’t we just do it? Yes, it is actually possible to launch incompatible games on macOS regardless of the official hurdle. Learn how in the instructions below.
System Requirements
| Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|
| OS: Windows 7 (64-bit only) | OS: Windows 10 (64-bit only) |
| Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200 | Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600X |
| RAM: 6 GB | RAM: 8 GB |
| Video card: Intel® UHD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB | Video card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 3GB / AMD Radeon™ RX 580 |
| DirectX: from 10 version | DirectX: from 10 version |
| Disc space: 60 GB | Disc space: 60 GB |
Play Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on Mac with Parallels
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord game requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be a solution. 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 Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord game on Mac.
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 Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on Mac with Boosteroid or Nvidia GeForce Now
Update: Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now fully support Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord! Play the advanced game on a Mac, old Windows PC, and even Android!
If you have an old Mac, or it cannot satisfy the Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 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 browser or 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, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now. Among them, only Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now have Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord in their game catalog, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting from MacOS 10.10) and even Android! Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now can stream games with high resolution (1080p), every service has its pros and cons.
Play Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 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 Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, this is probably the best way to play Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord for now. 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.
- Download Windows ISO file
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
- Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
- Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)