[toc] You know you could run your city better than the current mayor, right? Or drive a truck better than that jerk who almost ran you off the road? Well, fortunately, your Mac gives you the opportunity to test that out.
Simulators have always been a strong genre on the Mac and today is no different. From farming to rollercoasters all the way up to managing people’s lives, there’s a simulation that will let you live out your fantasies.

And if you think these games all require a beefy Mac to simulate the real world, you’ll be surprised to find a host of fantastic sims that will run even on your not-so-powerful MacBook.
So whether you prefer tycoon games, realistic simulators, or something in between, our best Simulation games for Mac picks will have something for you.

These are our absolute favorites:

The rest of the best:

Stardew Valley | Planet Coaster | Football Manager 2022 | Prison Architect | The Sims 4 | X-Plane 11 | Two Point Hospital | Kerbal Space Program

Looking for something different? We also have a list of the 100 Best Mac games in all the best categories.

Our absolute favorite Mac Simulation games

 

Cities: Skylines

City-building games helped create the simulation genre, and for years SimCity was the gold standard. But Maxis and EA dropped the ball with the latest version, and Cities: Skylines picked it up and ran with it.

Cities: Skylines’ premise is the usual. You create a city from scratch: build roads and other infrastructure; supply energy and water; control zoning; choose tax rates; provide public services, public transportation, parks and entertainment, and more.

It can be overwhelming, but Cities: Skylines also helps you along, keeping things hidden until your city reaches a certain size and your citizens demand them. Keep your citizens happy and your city will thrive and grow.

Cities: Skylines goes a step further than SimCity and adds challenges, huge maps, and a traffic simulation so smart it’s scary. Even better, Colossal continues to provide excellent support with free and paid updates on a regular basis. If you were looking for city simulation games for Mac, this is the best there is.

 One more thing… The graphics are top-notch too, making Skylines the most beautiful city-building game ever created. However, that does make it a demanding game that needs a dedicated graphics card.

System requirements: OS 10.9, 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5670, 512 MB VRAM, 4 GB hard drive space.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Cities: Skylines	Simulation	Yes	OpenGL	Rosetta	Average

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Farming Simulator 22

Usually, when someone talks about a strategy game, you imagine some medieval-esque political simulator or war games like Risk. However, just like the title implies, Farming Simulator 22 is all about farming. Does that make it a boring strategy game by any means?

Of course not. While you won’t be fighting any wars abroad, farming does take a good deal of logistics to operate smoothly. Managing your time well is key in Farming Simulator. Plan out your harvesting dates, figure out your transport, and count your money, because growing crops is only half the battle. Even though it sounds like some stressful business strategy simulator, Farming Simulator 22 manages to make it a fun yet relaxing task.

Farming Simulator also has a good history of Mac compatibility, so this is a great time to try it out.

System requirements: macOS 10.1, Intel Core i5 or better, 8 GB RAM, 35 GB HD space, GeForce GTX 660, AMD Radeon R7 265 or better.
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-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Farming Simulator 22	Simulation	Yes	Metal	Native	Good

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Euro Truck Simulator 2

When you think about it, a lot of planning is needed to be a trucker. Your travel plan will dictate your fuel usage, and fuel usage will determine how much the journey costs. The same goes for Euro Truck Simulator 2, which is possibly the best trucking simulator on the market as of now.

There’s not a lot of fancy mechanics to Euro Truck Simulator 2. Customize your truck within your budget and strategize the best road path available to save money. Eventually, once you earn enough, you can start your own trucking company and thrive in Trucker paradise. And that’s the main strategy aspect of this game.

Additionally, this game is very hit or miss for the gaming community. If you hate long drives, you’ll probably find it boring. If you like long drives, then you’ll find this game to be a relaxing experience.

System requirements: macOS 10.9, Dual-core CPU 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 12 GB HD space, GeForce GTS 450 or Intel HD 4000.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Euro Truck Simulator 2	Simulation	Yes	TBC	Rosetta	Good

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Stardew Valley

One of the hottest indie titles ever released, this pixel-graphic farming sim continues to add major updates years after its initial release, including the addition of cooperative multiplayer.

In Stardew Valley you inherit a dormant farm from your grandfather and start clearing land, planting crops, raising animals, and more. Stardew Valley includes RPG elements such as crafting and the ability to level up your abilities and unlock new areas to explore.

You’ll also meet other residents and have the chance to help rebuild the decaying town. There’s so much more to Stardew Valley, including the ability to woo and marry NPCs, that you may never discover all the game has to offer. Multiplayer allows you to farm with up to three friends, and the game’s requirements are so light this could have also been our Macbook pick.

 One more thing… It’s hard to believe but Stardew Valley was created by only one person, Eric Barone.

System requirements: REQUIREMENTS.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Stardew Valley	Simulation	Yes	OpenGL	Rosetta	Good

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Planet Coaster

Planet Coaster, in essence, is a theme park simulator game. Take the role of an omnipotent architect and design your own theme park. You have both the freedom and the tools to build your greatest desire. Terraform the land to create lakes and mountains, build the world’s largest roller-coaster, or spend hours on hours customizing each and every building that resides in your dreamland.

However, all ambitious creations need a glorious amount of funding and a theme park is no exception. In Planet Coaster, you’ll have to manage your income and expenses wisely. Calculate ticket prices, food prices, increase the costs of rain-coats during rainy weather, all while making your customers happy. Happy customers means more spending, and more income means bigger attractions. Plan out your business strategy and grow your theme-park domain.

Additionally, it runs very well on Mac platforms, with solid gameplay performance and graphics. Happy Building!

System requirements: macOS 10.14, Intel Core i5, 6 GB RAM, 15 GB HD space, AMD Radeon R9 M290 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M.
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-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Planet Coaster	Simulation	Yes	Metal	Rosetta	Good

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Football Manager 2022

Football Manager 2022. The title says it all. This is a game entirely about managing a football team, so it should be clear that this is going to take a lot of strategic planning.

The first impression you may have of Football Manager 2022 is the sheer number of things you have to manage. Giving orders to your assistants, signing up players for your team, giving pep talks, and even deciding whether to throw a water bottle or not to show how unhappy you are with the team’s progress. There is also constant pressure from the team’s owners, lose too many matches and you’ll soon be out of a job. Furthermore, few games have made managing a team so rewarding. The feeling you get from seeing your strategy executed properly is very satisfying, especially when you can see actual 3D models of players commence it on the football field.

System requirements: 64-bit macOS 10.13.6, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 7 GB HD space, Intel GMA X4500, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT, AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with 256MB VRAM.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Football Manager 2022	Simulation	Yes	Metal	Rosetta	Good

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Prison Architect

In most simulations, you’re trying to make your virtual people happy. Prison Architect is a little different, as your role is not to make your sims happy but to keep them, well, in prison.

Rehabilitation is an option, but there will be times in the game when, despite all you might have done for them, your prisoners will have riots and try to escape. That’s the life of a prison architect.

You begin by constructing your prison and then hiring staff. As it’s a private prison you’ll need to make money; every inmate you take in will generate cash, but you also have a reputation to build, so rioting, drug smuggling, and jailbreaks will have to be kept to a minimum.

While you can focus on rehabilitation and create a relatively pleasant place for the inmates to live, you can also go full maximum security prison and make their stay a living hell, the choice is yours.

One more thing… As our Macbook Pick, be assured that Prison Architect will run fine on just about any Mac.

System requirements: 2009 era MacBook Pro, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB RAM, 300 MB hard drive space.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	Prison Architect	Strategy	Yes	OpenGL	Rosetta	Good

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The Sims 4

The latest in this virtual world franchise, The Sims 4 continues to build on your ability to create the people of your dreams, put them in the situations you desire, and see what happens.

With greater control over both the look and personality of your sims, the power of human creation has never been more realistic. And of course, it doesn’t stop with people; build the home of your dreams, travel to other communities and meet new and interesting (or boring) people, and control your Sims’ relationships and careers.

As with the earlier versions, there are tons of paid DLC to add pets, seasons, activities, and much more. These tend to do more than just add new characters, rather they can fundamentally alter things you can do in the game, such as adding a fame career path or seasonal activities. If control is your thing, The Sims 4 is your game.

One more thing… Light system requirements mean you can play this game on older computers and it will still look good.

System requirements: macOS 10.7.5, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 320M, 9600M, 9400M, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro or better, 256 MB VRAM, 10 GB hard drive space.

-	Game	Genre	64-bit?	API	M1 Support	Performance	Benchmarks
	The Sims 4	Simulation	Yes	Metal	Rosetta	Good

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X-Plane 11

Long the standard for realistic flight simulation games for Mac, X-Plane 11 continues the franchise’s reputation for ultra-realism, but now with a much friendlier interface making it more accessible to casual users.

How realistic is X-Plane? There are versions used by people training to be actual pilots. Not this version of course, but still, that gives you some idea. But be aware, this is one of the most hardcore sim games for Mac available. From incredibly realistic and detailed planes and cockpits to the ability to contact air traffic control, gate pushbacks, real-time weather and more, X-Plane is as close as most of us will ever come to actually fly a plane.

But if you’re looking to jump into a cockpit and start dogfighting or bombing runs, you’ll be disappointed. While X-Plane does include military jets, and you can load out and fire weapons, there won’t be any enemies to shoot at.

 One more thing… Realistic graphics, scenery, and buildings help round out this picture, though for the most realistic cities and airports you’ll need to pony up for the extensive DLC.

System requirements: REQUIREMENTS.

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Two Point Hospital

A sort of sequel to the classic Theme Hospital, Two Point Hospital has the cure for those looking for a hospital sim. Your task here is to build a hospital from the ground up, making it the most attractive place for the citizens of Two Point County to come to be healed.

Trouble is, what ails the citizens of Two Point County differs from what you’ll see at a normal hospital. Have you researched the cure for Cubism yet? Here you’ll need to. You’ll also need to hire and train your staff, take out loans to fund your research and expansions, and deal with doctors and nurses who are often more difficult than the patients. All this to prevent the next deadly pandemic.

Remember, though, that your hospital is there as much for the shareholders as for the patients. As the description says, you’ll need to “strive to make a profit (and hopefully save some people along the way).”

 One more thing… Not only is this a worthy Theme Hospital successor, but this is also one of the finest tycoon games for Mac currently available.

System requirements: OS 10.13, 2.3 GHz i5 8259U processor, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 775M, AMD Radeon 555 or better, 2 GB VRAM, 5 GB hard drive space.

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Kerbal Space Program

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to master Kerbal Space Program, but you will need patience and dedication to help the Kerbals achieve their dream of entering orbit.

The game may look cute with cartoony graphics but it’s harder than you might expect. This is a simulation after all, and no one ever said space flight was easy. Sandbox Mode gives you everything you need to get started. Building rockets is as easy as dragging and locking pieces together and there is no consequence for failure.

In the Science and Career Modes, the game becomes more serious; it’s one thing to get a rocket off the ground, but achieving orbit is more difficult due to the game’s use of real-world physics. Finally, in Career Mode, you’re in charge of the entire space program. Raise funds to research rockets, train your crew, explore new planets, and more.

One more thing… This is a difficult game but is one of the few games where you might learn something useful. Who said rocket science isn’t fun?

System requirements: OS 10.9, Intel Processor, 4 GB RAM, SM 4.0 with 512 MB VRAM, 3 GB hard drive space.

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The Competition: Free Simulation games for Mac and more

MacOS does not lack for excellent simulations, so you knew we wouldn’t stop with just eleven games. And if you take into account excellent Early Access games (not officially released but available) such as Oxygen Not Included, stopping at 10 or 20 games becomes impossible!

The above titles are the best, but the following titles are also all excellent simulations, including a couple of worthy free simulator games for Mac:

Our Criteria

As you can see, simulations cover a lot of ground, and while everyone’s favorites might be different, we’re confident this is a solid list for Mac gamers. To ensure that’s the case, we have a set of criteria we use for all of our games and lists:

Native support: This should go without saying, but each and every one of the games mentioned here has to be officially supported on macOS and does not require Bootcamp or Wine. We’ve seen too many Top Games for macOS lists that feature Windows-only games…

MacOS performance: There’s a plethora of reliable Windows-PC reviews, guides, and videos on the internet. However, they never acknowledge MacOS gaming. This is why our focus is always on the Mac performance of the games listed here.

Critical acclaim: Video games can be subjective, but to keep this guide as relevant as possible, we only consider proven games with positive reviews from both professional reviewers and average gamers.

Pricing: We all want quality, but pricing also plays an important role. We always keep in mind price tags and production value to give indies and AAA games equal chances. After all, we’re after games that are fun to play. Looks are important but fun gameplay is even more so.

Last updated: February 11, 2022

Last updated a long time ago, this guide was in need of love. This time around we:

• Removed Parkitect.
• Added Planet Coaster
• Replaced American Truck Manager with Euro Truck Manager 2
• Replaced Farming Simulator 19 with Farming Simulator 22
• Replace Football Manager 2019 with Football Manager 2022

Bottom line: This guide has been updated to fully reflect the current state of our favorites GENRE Mac games!

Your Turn

Obviously, simulations can mean many things to different people. We’ve even had our debates in compiling this list on what is and isn’t a simulation. What is clear is that the Mac doesn’t lack excellent simulations of many varieties that can run on many different Macs. There’s sure to be something on this list for you.

But we know there’s probably something we missed, so we want to hear from you. What’s your favorite on our list? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments.

Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission (this is how we pay the bills). This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

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