CrossOver
One-click local install, official support.
Difficulty: MediumCost: $74 (CrossOver)Good
CrossOver
How to play Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Mac
Strategy · 2014
Best played through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.
Overall rating: Runs great on Mac · 100% of 1 players say it runs well
Your setup
Detect your Mac to see whether Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ will run.
Best played through CrossOver on Apple Silicon.
How to run Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on your Mac in 2026
Best path: CrossOver
CrossOver runs the Windows version of Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Apple Silicon by translating DirectX to Metal. One-click install, no Windows virtual machine, full local performance.
Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth is a new science-fiction-themed entry into the award winning Civilization series. As part of an expedition sent to find a home beyond Earth, lead your people into a new frontier, explore and colonize an alien planet and create a new civilization in space.
The native Mac version is 32 bit and will not work on modern macOS versions. You must use the Windows version via CrossOver or similar translation layers to play on Apple Silicon.
What the world thinks
Performance
How Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ runs on your Mac, from our performance model and player reports.
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Best way to play it on Mac
The native Mac version is 32 bit and will not work on modern macOS versions. You must use the Windows version via CrossOver or similar translation layers to play on Apple Silicon.
See if this is the right method for your setup
Ways to play Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Mac
Here are all the options available, ranked by what we recommend first.
Parallels
Full Windows 11 ARM inside macOS.
Difficulty: MediumCost: $99/year + Windows licenceEstimate
Compare methods at a glance
Lower = betterHow each supported method stacks up on setup effort, time and runtime overhead.
Method
Setup Difficulty
Time Investment
Performance Overhead
- CrossOverTranslationTop pickSetupModerateTime15 minOverheadMedium
- ParallelsVMSetupModerateTime30 minOverheadHigh
Where to buy Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
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Step-by-step setup guides
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How to run Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Mac with CrossOver
Good· CompatibilityRunning Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ 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
- Open CrossOver → click New Bottle
- Name it after the game (e.g.
Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™) and choose Windows 10 64-bit - Open the bottle's Settings and set:
- Graphics: D3DMetal (not DXVK)
- Synchronization: ESync
- High Resolution Mode: Off
Step 2 — Install the game launcher
- Inside CrossOver, click Install Application → search for Steam (or Epic Games Launcher if you own it there)
- Install it into the same bottle you just created
- Launch Steam, log in, and let it fully update before proceeding
Step 3 — Install and launch Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
- Open Steam (or your launcher) inside CrossOver
- Install Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ through the launcher as normal
- Launch the game — use the launcher's Play button, not CrossOver directly
- 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 days ↗Affiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.
How to run Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Mac with Parallels
Estimate· CompatibilityUsing Parallels to play Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ 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
- Buy / start a trial of Parallels Desktop.
- Install Windows 11 ARM via the one-click wizard.
- Inside Windows, install Steam / Xbox app and Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™.
- Enable DirectX 11 in Parallels settings for best 3D performance.
Video proof
Try Parallels Desktop free ↗Affiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.
Our recommendation
For most Mac players the best way to play Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ on Mac is CrossOver. Native is blocked on this title, so do not use it. One-click local install, official support.
| Method | Quality | Difficulty | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| CrossOverPick | Good | Medium | $74 one-time / $39/year |
| Parallels | Estimate | Medium | $99/year + Windows licence |
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