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How to play Age of Empires on Mac

Play Age of Empires on your Mac Computer , you will need to install the Windows operating system. Well, we know that Age of Empires is not really available for Mac, so you have to use either a Remote Desktop or a Virtual Machine or via Boot Camp . Let's learn a little more here.

ContentsHow to play Age of Empires on Mac1]Use a virtual machine2]Use BootCampCan you play Age of Empires 4 on Mac?

How to play Age of Empires on Mac

Age of Empires is one of the very popular games based on historical real-time strategies. The game was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. As of this writing, this series has a total of nine games released. You will be able to play the game on your Mac using one of the following methods.

1]Use a virtual machine

A virtual machine is actually a computer file that behaves like a full computer. You can run it in a window with a different operating system. It's well-partitioned from the rest of your computer system, which means it can't interfere with your machine's main operating system. As Age of Empires is a Windows dedicated game, you need to run Windows OS in a virtual machine to play this game on your Mac.

  1. Start your virtual machine software.
  2. Download Windows and follow the instructions to install it on your Mac.
  3. Once Windows is installed on your virtual machine, you will be able to play your favorite Age of Empires on your Mac.
  4. Download the game from MS Store and enjoy.
  5. Remember that this is a virtual machine and it won't work best as your main machine, you may experience performance issues while gaming.

There are many virtual machine software available in the market which will allow you to install Windows operating system on a Mac, and some of the popular names include – Parallel Desktop and VMWare Fusion.

2]Use BootCamp

Apart from virtual machine software, you can also use Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition on your Mac. Instead, Boot Camp is the Apple-approved way to run Windows on your Mac.

  1. Before installing Windows on your Mac, check the Secure Boot settings. By default it is set to Full Security, if by any chance you changed it to No Security, change it back to Full Security and then continue.
  2. Go to Utilities under your Applications folder and open Boot Camp Assistant. Follow the instructions given.
  3. Also, in your USB drive on your Mac and Boot Camp Assistant will create a bootable USB drive for installing Windows.
  4. You will then be asked to set the Windows partition size, you can set the partition size as you need and remember that you cannot change it later. The recommended size is 100-150 GB.
  5. Once Boot Camp Assistant is complete, your Mac will restart the Windows installer. Select the Bootcamp partition and click Format. Click Next and follow the given instructions to begin installing Windows. Remember to unplug all other external devices not needed for installation.
  6. Wait for the installation to complete and then click Finish.
  7. You now have Windows running on your Mac. Download the game and enjoy.

So these are the ways through which you can play Age of Empires on your Mac. Let us know which of them suits you best.

Can we play Age of Empires 4 on Mac?

Age of Empires game is officially available only for Windows 10 and Windows 11 and not for Mac, but you can still play it on your Mac using a virtual machine or via Boot Camp.