Recommended means of playing and modding Skyrim on macOS
If you’re a macOS user who wants to play Skyrim on your computer, this is my page of recommendations for how to go about doing it. I’ll talk about tools available to you, and my suggestions based on exactly how you’d like to play the game.
Tools you’ll want to consider
- Crossover, if you want to play directly on macOS
- Parallels, if you want to run a Windows virtual machine
- Mod Organizer 2 and Vortex, the two most commonly used mod managers for Skyrim and other games
- Wabbajack, a tool for downloading and installing curated mod packs
What you’ll need to just play Skyrim
If you just want to play the game and not worry about modding it yet, then you will just need to focus on Crossover and Parallels. Here are my takes on these two tools.
Crossover vs. generic Wine
Crossover is a paid product, but it’s generally best in class for running Windows programs directly on a Mac. It has a decent UI. It does just about all of the heavy lifting for you, in terms of the underlying settings to get a Windows program to work on a Mac. Most importantly, it does not expect you to pay a subscription. And a lot of the money it makes will go directly into continued Wine development on macOS, so there’s that.
There are free options that do what Crossover does, not the least of which is Wine itself, which can be installed on a Mac in various ways. But they’re still shoring up ARM support for it, so you may not get best results using a base Wine install.
So Crossover is probably your best bet.
However, if free is important to you, and/or you have the technical chops to dig into Wine’s configuration and settings, Wine is a route to consider.
Why Parallels vs. any other virtual machine product
Parallels is a paid product, and, frustratingly, it will expect you to pay a regular subscription if you don’t want to be throttled to 8GB of RAM for your VM. Which, if you’re a gamer and especially a gamer intending to run a large Skyrim modpack, would be very suboptimal.
But Parallels remains the best option available for Mac users who want to run a Windows VM for gaming. There are other products that do Windows VM, and some of them are even open source and free. But they have two general problems:
- They may do direct emulation rather than virtualization, which is slower, and therefore very problematic if your expected use is to play games. UTM is an example of this kind of product.
- They may also not have ARM-compatible versions. If a product does not explicitly say it supports running on Apple Silicon/M-series Macs, then it’s not going to be practical for this use case. VirtualBox is an example in this category.
This makes Parallels the best choice for VM-based gaming on a Mac.
Which tool to use to play unmodded Skyrim on macOS
Whether you use Crossover or Parallels to play an unmodded Skyrim will depend on your answers to several possible questions. So here’s a table to summarize my recommendations:
| If you want to… | Then you should use… |
|---|---|
| Avoid using Windows completely | Crossover |
| Just play Skyrim for now, and not worry about any other games or any other uses for Windows | Crossover |
| Play any games besides Skyrim which are also confirmed to work in Crossover | Crossover |
| Play any games besides Skyrim that are not confirmed to work in Crossover | Parallels |
| Use Windows for anything besides gaming on your Mac, and you do not also have a PC | Parallels |
| Spend the least amount of money possible | One-time Parallels purchase, since that’s cheaper than Crossover |
See below for additional recommendations if you want to not only play Skyrim, but also mod it.
What you’ll need to mod Skyrim as well as play it
Now I’ll talk about the tools required if you want to not only play Skyrim on macOS, but also mod it. Exactly how you want to go about modding the game will impact what tools you’ll need.
Mod Organizer 2
Between MO2 and Vortex, MO2 is commonly considered the superior mod manager. The main reason I’ve heard quoted for this is that it’s better at detecting conflicts between mods than Vortex is. This is true!
A huge caveat here, though, is that MO2 will not work in a Windows VM on a macOS machine, at least if you have an Apple Silicon machine with any M series chip. It will, however, work in Crossover.
Vortex
While it is technically inferior to MO2 in terms of handling mod conflicts, Vortex does have a rather more user-friendly UI. And it’s also the tool you’ll want to use if you want to install curated Collections of mods off of Nexus Mods. Especially large Collections, such as Gate to Sovngarde.
Vortex, however, is the exact opposite of MO2. It will not work in Crossover, but it will work in a Windows VM on an Apple Silicon machine.
Where you may run into trouble, though, is the size of whatever load order you’d want to run in Vortex. As I noted above, Parallels will throttle your available memory for a VM to 8GB unless you pay a yearly subscription.
If you want to run large Vortex-based load orders, though, whether your own or via Nexus Mods Collections, you’re going to need to get rid of that throttle on your available memory. So you’d want to pay for a Parallels subscription.
Wabbajack
Wabbajack isn’t a mod manager per se, even though its job is to let you install Skyrim mods. Its approach is not one of installing and managing individual mods, though. Instead, it lets you install curated mod packs, similar to the Collections hosted on Nexus. Tuxborn is an example of such a modpack.
Wabbajack lists will generally use MO2 as the way to manage the individual mods in the modpack.
Like Vortex, Wabbajack will not work in Crossover. It will work in a Windows VM. But given that Wabbajack modpacks generally use MO2 as the preferred mod mager, and MO2 doesn’t work in a Windows VM, then running a Wabbajack modpack is the most complicated path to follow for a Mac user.
Which tool to use to mod Skyrim on macOS
As with the table of recommendations for playing unmodded Skyrim above, you have some questions to consider. So here’s a table to cover those:
| If you want to… | Then you should use… |
|---|---|
| Create your own Skyrim load order, and not use a Windows VM | Crossover and MO2 |
| Create your own small Skyrim load order, and also use a Windows VM | Parallels with a one-time purchase, and Vortex |
| Create your own large Skyrim load order, and also use a Windows VM | Parallels with a yearly subscription, and Vortex |
| Use a Collection from Nexus Mods, such as Gate to Sovngarde | Parallels with a yearly paid subscription, and Vortex |
| Run any Wabbajack modpack, such as Tuxborn, and you’re copying a working install from another device | Crossover and MO2 (no Wabbajack required on your Mac if you’re copying the install from something else) |
| Run any Wabbajack modpack, and you’re doing a fresh install of that modpack on your computer | Crossover, Parallels with a one-time purchase, MO2, and Wabbajack |
What I’m personally using
Here are the ways I’ve successfully run modded Skyrim on my own Mac, an M1 MacBook Pro:
- Purchased my copy of Skyrim from Steam, since that’s how most PC players do it. I cannot confirm functionality on any of this page’s scenarios of a Skyrim purchased anywhere else, such as GOG.
- I’ve run small load orders in Windows VM in Parallels, up to approximately 110 or so mods. So the one-time Parallels purchase I did is okay for that.
- I have now also copied a working Tuxborn install off my Steam Deck and up to macOS, and only needed Crossover to get it to work on the Mac.
Here is what I have not been able to do:
- Get a large load order working in Vortex in my Parallels VM
- Get MO2 to work in my Parallels VM
- Get Vortex or Wabbajack to work in Crossover
In conclusion, my personal recommendations
This is definitely one of those “go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes” situations, as you may have guessed from the above tables. So here’s a final summary of my recommendations:
| If you want to… | Then you should use… |
|---|---|
| Just play unmodded Skyrim | Crossover |
| Mod Skyrim with Vortex with small load orders | Parallels with one-time purchase |
| Mod Skyrim with Vortex with large load orders | Parallels with yearly subscription |
| Mod Skyrim with your own load orders in MO2 | Crossover |
| Run any Wabbajack modpack, and you’re copying a working install from another device | Crossover |
| Run any Wabbajack modpack, and you’re doing a fresh install | Parallels with one-time purchase for the Wabbajack install part, and Crossover for the MO2 and Skyrim parts |
Any questions?
Talk to me!