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The Bus cover art
Streaming

How to play The Bus on Mac

Simulation · 2026

Best played by streaming from the cloud via Boosteroid.

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Your setup
Detect your Mac to see whether The Bus will run.

Best played by streaming from the cloud via Boosteroid.

How to run The Bus on your Mac in 2026

Best path: Boosteroid

Boosteroid streams The Bus from a high-end remote GPU straight to your Mac. Nothing to install, plays at high settings even on a base M1.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
BoosteroidPickGoodEasy$9.95 /moGet it ↗
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/yrGet it ↗

Heads up: Boosteroid streams the game but doesn't include a copy — you'll still need to own The Bus on a supported store (AllKeyShop).

The Bus

Transport passengers in the city bus simulation The Bus along 1:1 scale routes in Berlin, passing landmarks like the Victory Column, Brandenburg Gate, and Alexanderplatz. In the Scania Citywide LF and other licensed buses, sell tickets, handle traffic, and get everyone to their destination safely.

The Bus is currently unplayable locally on Apple Silicon due to high demands and API incompatibilities; cloud streaming via Boosteroid is the only reliable way to play.

The Bus screenshot 1The Bus screenshot 2The Bus screenshot 3The Bus screenshot 4The Bus screenshot 5The Bus screenshot 6

What the world thinks

  • Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK) / CrossOver: The game often fails to launch or suffers from extreme shader compilation stutter and texture bugs on M1/M2 chips due to the complex implementation of DLSS and Unreal Engine 5 features in later builds.
  • Parallels Desktop: Performance is unplayable (often < 10 FPS) because Parallels lacks the necessary Vulkan/DirectX 12 hardware acceleration required for this specific title.

Performance

How The Bus runs on your Mac, from our performance model and player reports.

See exactly how The Bus will run on your Mac

Pick your chip and RAM for a personalised estimate.

Best way to play it on Mac

The Bus is currently unplayable locally on Apple Silicon due to high demands and API incompatibilities; cloud streaming via Boosteroid is the only reliable way to play.

See if this is the right method for your setup

Ways to play The Bus 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.

  • BoosteroidCloudTop pick
    Setup
    Simple
    Time
    5 min
    Overhead
    Low
  • ParallelsVM
    Setup
    Moderate
    Time
    30 min
    Overhead
    High

Where to buy The Bus

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

Platform-by-platform reliability

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Step-by-step setup guides

Idiot-proof walkthroughs for every method.

How to run The Bus on Mac with Boosteroid

Good· Streaming

Streaming The Bus through Boosteroid is the fastest way to start playing on a Mac — there's nothing to install, no Windows VM, no compatibility layer. The game runs on a remote GPU and your Mac just receives the video, which means even a base M1 MacBook Air can play the most demanding AAA titles at high settings. The tradeoff is that you need a stable internet connection (ideally wired or 5GHz Wi-Fi with 25+ Mbps down) and a subscription.

Step-by-step

  1. Create a Boosteroid account and pick a plan.
  2. Use the web client or download the macOS app.
  3. Add The Bus from their library (you'll need to own it on Steam/Epic).

Video proof

Get BoosteroidAffiliate link — supports the site at no extra cost.

How to run The Bus on Mac with Parallels

Estimate· Compatibility

Using Parallels to play The Bus 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 The Bus.
  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 the best way to play The Bus is streaming it through Boosteroid. Needs 25+ Mbps internet, wired ideal.

MethodQualityDifficultyCost
BoosteroidPickGoodEasy$9.95 / month
ParallelsEstimateMedium$99/year + Windows licence
Get Boosteroid

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