← Back
Pizza Tower cover art
CrossOver

How to play Pizza Tower on Mac

Platformer · 2023

Plays smoothly through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.

Overall rating: Tricky to run on Mac · 0% of 1 players say it runs well

Your setup
Detect your Mac to see whether Pizza Tower will run.

Plays smoothly through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.

How to run Pizza Tower on your Mac in 2026

Best path: CrossOver

CrossOver runs Pizza Tower natively on Apple Silicon by translating DirectX to Metal. One-click install, no Windows VM, full local performance.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
CrossOverPickGoodMedium$74 / $39/yrGet it ↗
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/yrGet it ↗

Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower is a fast paced 2D platformer, with an emphasis on movement, exploration and score attack. Featuring highly stylized pixel art inspired by the cartoons from the '90s, and a highly energetic soundtrack.

Pizza Tower runs flawlessly on Apple Silicon via CrossOver or Whisky, maintaining a locked 60 FPS with full controller support.

Pizza Tower screenshot 1Pizza Tower screenshot 2Pizza Tower screenshot 3Pizza Tower screenshot 4Pizza Tower screenshot 5Pizza Tower screenshot 6

What the world thinks

The most efficient way to play Pizza Tower on Apple Silicon is via CrossOver. Since the game is a 2D title built in GameMaker, it translates exceptionally well without the overhead of a full virtual machine.

  1. Install CrossOver: Download and install CrossOver 23 or newer.
  2. Create a Bottle: Click 'Install a Windows Application' and search for 'Steam'. Create a new Windows 10 64-bit bottle.
  3. Install Pizza Tower: Log into Steam within that bottle and download Pizza Tower.
  4. Optimization Settings: In the right-hand sidebar for the Steam bottle, ensure D3D Metal is toggled OFF (use DXVK instead). Pizza Tower is a DirectX 11 game, and DXVK provides better stability for GameMaker titles on macOS.
  5. Launch: Simply run the game from the Steam library. Controller support (DualSense/Xbox) should be plug-and-play through Steam Input.

Performance

How Pizza Tower runs on your Mac, from our performance model and player reports.

See exactly how Pizza Tower will run on your Mac

Pick your chip and RAM for a personalised estimate.

Best way to play it on Mac

Pizza Tower runs flawlessly on Apple Silicon via CrossOver or Whisky, maintaining a locked 60 FPS with full controller support.

See if this is the right method for your setup

Ways to play Pizza Tower on Mac

Here are all the options available, ranked by what we recommend first.

Compare methods at a glance

Lower = better

How each supported method stacks up on setup effort, time and runtime overhead.

  • CrossOverTranslationTop pick
    Setup
    Moderate
    Time
    15 min
    Overhead
    Medium
  • ParallelsVM
    Setup
    Moderate
    Time
    30 min
    Overhead
    High

Where to buy Pizza Tower

Live prices compared across trusted PC key sellers — updates every few hours.

Platform-by-platform reliability

Loading per-platform notes…

Step-by-step setup guides

Idiot-proof walkthroughs for every method.

How to run Pizza Tower on Mac with CrossOver

Good· Compatibility

Running Pizza Tower through CrossOver translates its Windows DirectX calls into Metal on Apple Silicon — no reboot, no Windows license, no virtual machine. Most setup time is spent on first-time bottle configuration and installing the game launcher (Steam, Epic, etc.) inside CrossOver. Once that's done, launching feels close to native. Expect 15–30 minutes of setup on the first run.

Step-by-step

Step 1 — Create a bottle

  1. Open CrossOver → click New Bottle
  2. Name it after the game (e.g. Pizza Tower) and choose Windows 10 64-bit
  3. Open the bottle's Settings and set:

- Graphics: D3DMetal (not DXVK)

- Synchronization: ESync

- High Resolution Mode: Off

Step 2 — Install the game launcher

  1. Inside CrossOver, click Install Application → search for Steam (or Epic Games Launcher if you own it there)
  2. Install it into the same bottle you just created
  3. Launch Steam, log in, and let it fully update before proceeding

Step 3 — Install and launch Pizza Tower

  1. Open Steam (or your launcher) inside CrossOver
  2. Install Pizza Tower through the launcher as normal
  3. Launch the game — use the launcher's Play button, not CrossOver directly
  4. First launch may take 30–90 seconds to show a window. Don't force-quit unless it hangs for several minutes.

Step 4 — If you hit issues

  • Black screen / stuck in small window: go to Settings → Graphics in-game, set Screen Type to Fullscreen, then restart
  • Resolution resets on every launch: find the game's config/settings file and set the resolution values manually, then mark the file Read-Only to prevent the game overwriting it
  • Crashes on startup: try switching the bottle's Synchronization from ESync to MSync, or vice versa

Video proof

Try CrossOver free for 14 daysAffiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.

How to run Pizza Tower on Mac with Parallels

Estimate· Compatibility

Using Parallels to play Pizza Tower means running a full copy of Windows 11 ARM inside macOS. This is the most "it just works" approach for games that don't behave under CrossOver, and DirectX 11 is hardware-accelerated. You'll need a Windows license and roughly 80 GB of disk space.

Step-by-step

  1. Buy / start a trial of Parallels Desktop.
  2. Install Windows 11 ARM via the one-click wizard.
  3. Inside Windows, install Steam / Xbox app and Pizza Tower.
  4. Enable DirectX 11 in Parallels settings for best 3D performance.

Video proof

Try Parallels Desktop freeAffiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.

Our recommendation

For most Mac players we recommend CrossOver as the fastest, smoothest way to play Pizza Tower. One-click local install, official support.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
CrossOverPickGoodMedium$74 one-time / $39/year
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/year + Windows licence
Try CrossOver free for 14 days

Comments

Share what worked for you running Pizza Tower on Mac.

Be kind. No spam.

Loading comments…

Frequently asked questions