How to Download and Play GTA 5 on Mac (M1 and Intel) (2023)

GTA 5 for Mac

The version of the game that’s put up for free is GTA 5’s Premium Edition – this includes the full storyline from the game plus Grand Theft Auto Online in addition to all currently existing in-game upgrades and bonus content. To top it all, users also got the “Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack” that comes with even more content as well as a 1,000,000 $ bonus in-game money for online play.

Play GTA 5 on Mac with Cloud Gaming

GTA V is now available to play on cloud gaming servers. This assures NO
compatibility issues while playing on your Mac as well as top-notch performance.

Step 1. Get GTA V

Before playing GTA V make sure you have a Steam, Epic Games, or RockStar compatible version of the game. This is important as other versions will not run on cloud gaming services such as Boosterоid and Geforce NOW. Below are links to the official websites. Feel free to search around the web for the best offers.

Update: Limited time offer now available at CDkeys.com, buy GTA V Premium Edition -84% Off for $10.99 (RockStar Launcher)

Step 2. Register and Add GTA 5 to Boosteroid

Play GTA 5 on Mac with Boosteroid

1. Go to the Boosteroid website and follow the steps to create an account.
2. Click on your new account’s name in the upper right corner of your screen to view the available subscription options.
3. Select a subscription plan and provide the necessary payment details.
4. Use the search option in the upper right corner to type GTA 5 and go to the game’s Boosteroid page.
5. Click on the play button once you are on the GTA 5 page. Depending on the chosen version you will need to link your account to Boosteroid.
6. To link your account to Boosteroid just click on the Ok button followed by Let’s Go. GTA 5 will launch immediately.
7. Use a full-screen mode for the best user experience.

Play GTA 5 on Mac with BootCamp

Before attempting to install boot camp we recommend checking your macs specifications and cross-referencing them with those recommended to run GTA 5. Next, you will need a program calledBoot Camp. With Boot Camp, you can install a version of Windows 10 which is compatible with GTA 5. Here are the steps for installing Windows 10 on a Mac using Boot Camp:

1. Download Windows 10 ISO onto your mac
2. Configure Boot Camp Assistant
3. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant
4. Open the program and click continue
5. Select the Windows 10 ISO
6. Choose somewhere around 100GB of space
7. Install the Windows 10 ISO and configure Windows
8. Install recommended drivers after booting up the Windows partition

If you are running Mac OS Cataline 10.15 we recommend watching this YouTube video to make sure you are not missing out on any of the steps.

Mac With Intel Chips

Although Mac computers aren’t specifically designed as gaming machines, it is still possible to play games on them. However, if you want to run GTA V on a Mac, you will first need to install Windows 7 or higher. We highly recommend installing windows 10 on your Mac even with the latest version of Mac OS 10.15.5 via something called Windows Boot Camp (official instructions from Apple on how to set this up) using the instructions above. Also, note that, in order to run the game on your Mac, you will also need at least 65 GB of free space and your machine would have to meet/exceed the minimum system requirements for the game.

Play GTA V on Mac M1

To play GTA V on Mac M1 models, we recommend installing a virtualization tool on your Mac and creating a Windows 10 virtual machine. Another recommended way to play GTA V on Mac M1 is to use CrossOver – a Windows 10 compatibility layer app.

The Boot Camp method shown on this page is a viable option only for Intel-based Macs. For M1 models, you will need to use an alternative such as Parallels or CrossOver. We will show you how to use Parallels and CrossOver, so that you can create, but bear in mind that, though a lot of Windows games can indeed be played on M1 Macs using these methods, there are no guarantees that they will work in all cases. Another note that we must make is that Parallels and Crossover are not free programs. However, they both have a 14-day free trial, and we recommend that you use this period to test them and then decide if the gaming experience you get with would make purchasing the full program worth it for you.

1. Start by going to the official site of Parallels, click the Download Free Trial button, and then select Download Now.
   
2. Once you download the Parallel installation file, start it, and double-click Install Parallels Desktop. Your Mac will probably ask you if you are sure you want to start this app – if it does, click Open.
   
3. If you are asked to enter your Admin password, type the password and click OK.
   
4. Click Next in Parallel’s Desktop Permissions screen, and then provide your approval for each permission that gets requested by clicking OK.
5. Next, you will have to download an ARM-compatible installation file for Windows – to do that, go to this link, find, click the Register button below “Meet the Windows Insider Program”, and then select Sign in now.
   
6. On the next page, sign in with your Microsoft account or create an account if you currently don’t have one and log into it.
7. Next, scroll down a bit until you get to the Register Now button, click it, and click Flight Now on the next page.
   
8. After that, click this link and sign in with your Microsoft account if you aren’t already signed in.
9. Select the Windows Client ARM 64 Insider Preview button and download the file – it’s a big file, around 9 gigabytes, so it will take a while for it to download.
   
10. Now go back to Parallels, click Continue, and then find the ARM file and drag and drop it in the center of the Parallels installer.
    
11. Click Continue and then choose Games only if you intend to use Windows only to play the game, after which select Continue and then Create.
12. (Optional step) You can check the Customize settings option before clicking on Create and this will take you to a settings window once you click the Create button – in this window you can make changes to the settings of the virtual machine. If you want, you can allocate more RAM and CPU cores to the virtual machine to improve performance while gaming. We recommend keeping the recommended number of cores but increasing the virtual memory (RAM) to 6 GB if your Mac M1 model has a total of 8 GB, and to 8 or 12, if your Mac has 16 gigabytes of RAM. After you are done here, close the customization screen and click Continue.
13. Next, go through the remaining installation prompts, giving your permission whenever it is required, and soon you will be done with the installation of the Windows 10 virtual machine.

Once the virtual machine’s installation is completed, you will be able to quickly switch between it and your macOS system simply by pressing Command + Tab or by swiping with three fingers on the trackpad. Basically, think of the virtual machine as simply one more active app that’s on your Mac and that can run other apps in its own environment. If you want, you can pause Parallels to stop it from using RAM and Processing power by going to macOS, clicking the Parallels icon in the menu bar, selecting Actions, and clicking on Pause. You can also shut it down entirely by going to the Windows 10 virtual machine, clicking the Start Menu, selecting the Power button, and then selecting Shut Down.

Play GTA V on Mac with CrossOver

Another way to play GTA V on Mac is to use a software called CrossOver. This program works by translating Windows commands to macOS commands, thus allowing you to run Windows software, which means you can use it to play GTA V on your Mac.

Note that CrossOver doesn’t work with all games, but it does with GTA V, so if you want to try it out, you can get CrossOver from this link. The app provides a 14-day free trial that will allow you to test it and see if you are okay with the performance before deciding whether to purchase the full product.

One advantage of CrossOver is that it lets you play the game locally, so performance won’t be as impacted by your Internet, compared to cloud gaming. Another plus is that, since this is a compatibility layer rather than a virtual machine, it allows your Mac to use all of its resources for the game, whereas, with the Parallels method, only half of your Mac’s CPU and memory would be available for gaming.

The downside is that setting up most games through CrossOver can be a bit finicky and take some time and effort. Also, it’s possible that changes in both the game and the CrossOver versions may lead to unexpected issues.

With all that out of the way, here are the steps to install and play GTA V on Mac using CrossOver.

1. Download Crossover from here.
2. Install CrossOver on your Mac and launch it.
3. Click Bottle from the menu bar, select New Bottle, enter a bottle name, set the Type to Windows 10 64-bit, and click Create.
   
   
4. Click the new bottle appears in the left panel.
5. Click the Install button from the bottom-left corner, type Steam in the search bar, and click on the Steam app.
   
   
6. Select Install, and follow the prompts to install the app.
   
7. Once Steam is installed, select it and click Run Command in the right panel.
   
8. When Steam starts, log in to your profile, find the game in your Library, click Install, and then select Next to install the game.
   
9. Next, go to this page and download the latest update DXVK version, by clicking the first .zip file shown in the Assets section.
10. Open the ZIP file and go to the x64 folder located in it.
    
11. Then in Crossover, click on Open C: Drive.
    
12. In the folder that shows up, go to windows > system32.
13. Now go back to the x64 folder in the downloaded DXVK ZIP file, copy its contents, and paste them in the system32 folder. When asked if you want to replace the existing files with the same name, click Replace on everything. This will install the latest DXVK patch in CrossOver, after which you can finally start the game.
    
14. To start GTA V in CrossOver, open the program, go to the GTA V bottle, click the game’s icon, and then click Run Command. GTA V will now start, and you can begin playing it as if you were on a Windows PC.

How to Download GTA V for Mac

Download Epic Games Launcher for Mac

Recommended System Requirements for GTA 5 On Mac:

Processor

Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)

Memory

8 GB RAM

Video Card

NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB

HDD

Space90 GB available space

Play GTA 5 with GeForce Now

A number of users on the Geforce forums have been reporting that Grand Theft Auto 5 has been removed from the NVIDIA Geforce Now library of games. Many people used to play GTA on Geforce Now but the game isn’t available anymore. Initially, the rumors were that the reason for the game’s take-down was an update or some problem with the contract, but it seems that Rockstar has got a deal with Google for Stadia and Geforce Now yanked GTA because of that.

Play GTA 5 on Mac with Google Stadia

The good news is that the fans of Grand Theft Auto 5 might be able to see it arriving soon in Stadia Edition. A Rockstar Mag tweet indicated that the game can be released earlier than expected. According to the leak, players using Google Stadia seem to be shortly able to enjoy the game. However, the tweet did not have a source or any timeline for the game’s release. That’s why many fans already anticipate an update that will reveal when they should be able to play the ported title.

At the moment, the game persists in gaming charts, and, hence, bringing it to more playing platforms is financially meaningful for all interested parties.

Grand Theft Auto 5 also gives fans a lot of content and the players in Stadia would surely enjoy the well-regarded title in their gaming collection. It remains to be seen if this game would contribute to improving Stadia’s revenue, although this depends a lot on the continuing success and popularity of GTA 5.

Grand Theft Auto 5 can currently be played on PCs, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X scheduled to be launched in late 2021.

Play GTA 5 on Apple Silicon

For the time being m1 chips cannot run windows with Boot Camp. The fundamental reason is that the two operating systems now run on a totally different architecture. Whereas Intel chips on Mac were capable of running Windows 10 this would be nearly impossible to achieve with all new Macs with Apple Silicon

Massive Epic Game Store crash due to a traffic spike on release date

As soon as Epic Games Store’s official Twitter account announced that the game they will be made available for free would indeed be GTA V, understandably, a huge number of users seem to have rushed to the Store in anticipation of the free release of the title. This, however, seems to have caused a massive crash on the Epic Games servers that lasted for hours. The Epic Games team addressed this issue on their Twitter page, expressing their apologies and assuring their customers that they are working on resolving the issue. At the moment of writing this post, the server problems at Epic Games Store seem to have been resolved and people could now once again log in with their accounts and claim the Premium Edition of the acclaimed Rockstar game.

This is not the first time Epic Games Store has made such free game giveaways. Ever since the store was launched in December 2018, they have been occasionally making games free for a temporary amount of time and according to a statement from the company made in January, they intend to keep doing it throughout the whole of 2020.

How to play GTA V on Android

To play GTA V on Android, you must either use a cloud gaming service or stream the game from a Windows PC. We recommend the cloud gaming variant for playing GTA V on Android because it doesn’t require you to stay near a PC.

The PC streaming variant is only an option for people who already have a Windows PC that can run the game and that has the game installed on it. Furthermore, you’d need to stay close to the computer, or else you won’t be able to perform the streaming. Neither of those requirements applies to the cloud gaming method. Regardless, both methods for playing GTA V on Android will be shown below, with instructions on how to use them.

Play GTA V on Android with Boosteroid

Boosteroid is a cloud gaming platform that offers GTA V in its library (among many other popular games). Here are our instructions on how to use this platform on your Android device:

1. First, you will need to create a registration on the platform’s website.
2. Next, go to the Play Store on your Android device and download the Boosteroid app. Then open the app and access your Boosteroid account.
3. Tap the account icon in the bottom-right and then tap on the Subscribe button, which will take you to a page where you need to get a subscription for the Boosteroid service.
   
4. Choose the payment plan you prefer and the payment method you’d like to use, and start your subscription by entering the required details.
5. Once you are subscribed to the service, tap the search button in the Boosteroid app, and search for GTA V.
6. There should be three options for the game: an Epic Games Store, a Steam, and a Rockstar variant. Tap on the version of GTA V that you own.
   
7. Next, tap Play on the game’s page, then tap OK, and wait for the game to load.
   
8. Before you start playing, you will first need to log in to the respective gaming store. To get a keyboard for entering your username and password, tap the keyboard icon in the top-left.
9. Once you are logged in, GTA V will start in Boosteroid. If you aren’t using a gamepad, you can tap the controller button (upper-left corner) to get touch controls on both sides of your screen.

Playing GTA V on Android by streaming it from a Windows PC

This is a method only available for users with Windows computers that have the game installed on them and that can run it without performance issues. Note that, while streaming GTA V to your Android phone, the latter must stay connected to the same network as the streaming computer. You can use any of the following three apps to stream the game to your Android device.

Moonlight – Moonlight only works with PCs that have Nvidia graphics cards. Before you can use this app for streaming, you need to get a registration on Nvidia’s site, and you must install the GeForce Experience app on the Windows PC. After that, you need to go to the settings of that app and enable the Gamestream setting found in the Shield section. Next, download and open Moonlight Game Streaming on the Android device, connect the latter to your PC and tap on the respective gaming store. Then you can visit your gaming library in that store and launch the game from there to begin streaming it to the Android device.

AMD Link – Only computers with AMD Radeon GPUs can stream via AMD Link. The user must first go to AMD Radeon Settings > AMD Link on the PC, then they must enable AMD Link Server, and click on Add Device. Then, on the Android device, the user must download the AMD Link app, open it, tap on QR Scan, and scan the code that’s on the PC screen. Once the PC and the Android phone/tablet are paired, one must click Gaming on the PC and then select GTA V from the list to begin the streaming.

Steam Link – To use Steam Link, you must own the desired game on Steam, as this app doesn’t work with other game stores. First, you need to make sure that the Steam client on your PC is open and that you are logged in to your account. Then you need to download Steam Link on the Android device, launch the app, wait for your PC to be found, and tap on it to pair it with the Android device. Next, tap Start Playing, and then simply go to your Steam games and start GTA V from there.