Steam beta gets native Apple Silicon support — the only public Arm version of Steam

Valve just released a Steam Client Beta that runs on Apple Silicon. The company announced on the Steam Community website that both the Steam Client and the Steam Helper now run natively on Apple Silicon. This move will improve Steam’s performance on Apple computers, especially as it removes the additional overhead for Rosetta 2.

Valve also has no choice but to create a native version for Steam, especially as Apple is largely sunsetting Rosetta 2 after macOS 27. The company made the announcement this week at WWDC 25, where it also said that macOS Tahoe will be the last OS update for Intel Macs, some five years after the company released the first Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Air.

That means most apps designed for x86 systems will no longer work with macOS, unless their developers create a version that runs natively on Apple Silicon. The company said it will only retain a few portions of Rosetta to run older games that are no longer updated by their developers.

This update means that Steam will have better performance, improving the gaming experience on your macOS device. Notably, it's also the only public Arm version of Steam going. However, it doesn’t mean that you can now start playing Windows-only games on your Apple computer. You still need emulation tools if you want to run x86 Windows games on your Mac.

Despite that, this change is slowly making Apple devices more conducive for gaming. The company wants to capture a bigger slice of the computer gaming pie with its ecosystem approach, but the limited number of titles (compared to the vast library of Windows games) and the relative price of Apple computers versus gaming PCs make it harder for gamers to switch over, despite the performance that Apple silicon delivers.

The phasing out of Rosetta 2 might disappoint a few users, but it is high time that developers start building apps specifically for Apple Silicon. After all, it’s already been five years since the first M1 chip arrived on the MacBook Air, and relying on a translation layer is certainly holding back the hardware from performing at its maximum potential.

If you want to upgrade the Steam client on your macOS device, open the Steam app, go to Steam > Preferences… In the Steam Settings window, go to Interface, then click on the dropdown menu beside Client Beta Participation and choose Steam Beta Update. This will restart Steam and download the updated version (Steam Version: 1749753892 or higher) that natively runs on Apple Silicon. To confirm the update, look for Steam in the Activity Monitor — the Kind column should say Apple.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.