Highball
What actually works instead
Cloud streaming runs the real Windows build on someone else's machine, so the anti-cheat is satisfied. GeForce NOW has a native Mac app and Xbox Cloud Gaming runs in a browser; both publish the games they carry. And before assuming you need any of this, check whether the game already has a native Mac build — a native build beats translation every time.
Notes
DirectX 12 only, so it needs Apple's D3DMetal (Play offers the licence) and the Wine 11 engine (CrossOver 26.3 tree), which is where CrossOver users play it. Its first check is the CPU: it requires AVX2 and refuses to start with 'Incompatible CPU detected' unless AVX is advertised through Rosetta, which the recipe does. GameGuard runs in user mode and CrossOver users play online through it; every game patch can break that until the next one. 135 GB on disk. Since patch 7.2.0 on 2026-10-20 the game uses Easy Anti-Cheat in place of GameGuard (Arrowhead's announcement, with Linux and Steam Deck support kept through Proton's Easy Anti-Cheat runtime). That runtime has no macOS build, so the game stops at Easy Anti-Cheat's start on a Mac and is out of reach for Highball and CrossOver alike while it holds (highball#439, an M5, 2026-10-22). What follows describes the game before the switch.
Known issues
'Incompatible CPU detected' at launch
What helps the recipe sets ROSETTA_ADVERTISE_AVX=1 (same as the Advertise AVX switch); Rosetta supports AVX2 on macOS 15 and later
Why the game requires AVX2 and Rosetta hides AVX unless asked
No DirectX 12 device on the default engine
What helps D3DMetal on the Wine 11 engine, which Play offers
Why the game is DirectX 12 only; DXMT and DXVK are DirectX 11 and 9
After the CPU check passes, the game warns that the GPU drivers are out of date (installed AMD 65535.65535.65535.65535), and after Continue it shows a black screen for a few seconds, closes, and opens the PlayStation crash reporter (reported on an M4 Pro with 24 GB, macOS 26.6.2, engine x64-crossover26.3-r7, D3DMetal, highball#81).
What helps none known yet. Not reproducible here, the game is not owned and is 135 GB.
Why a deadlock inside the game right after start, read from the reporter's full log on 2026-09-24: about a minute in, a game thread waits on one of the game's own critical sections (at 0x14190d008, inside its image) held by another thread that never releases it, RtlpWaitForCriticalSection times out at 60 s, and the process exits. What the holding thread is stuck on is not in the log. Three helper processes in the same session die of an NSException (-[NSViewBackingLayer setDisplaySyncEnabled:], sent by MoltenVK to a layer that is not a CAMetalLayer) right after creating a Vulkan instance, but those are not the game. CrossOver 26.2 lists a fix for Helldivers 2 not launching after a game update, and the only change naming the game in CrossOver 26.3's open Wine source (CW Hack 26536, set the app icon once) is already in Highball's Wine 11 engines, so that fix is not in the open code.
The game stops while Easy Anti-Cheat starts, or does not start at all (reported on an M5, macOS 27.0.1, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r29, highball#439)
What helps none. It is the same under CrossOver, by the reporter
Why by the report, the game moved from GameGuard to Easy Anti-Cheat, which has no Mac Wine support
One-click setup
Highball ships a recipe for HELLDIVERS 2: open the game in your Library and apply it. The recipe carries the tested renderer and any per-game fixes, so you don't have to reproduce them by hand. Read the recipe.
Provenance
CrossOver 26 community reports (r/macgaming and r/Helldivers, 2026); on Highball one reporter hit the game's own 'Incompatible CPU detected' AVX check (highball#81, M5 Max, macOS 26.5.2, Highball 0.8.8, engine r0). Not verified by Highball.
Common questions
Does HELLDIVERS 2 work on Mac?
No. HELLDIVERS 2 uses kernel-level anti-cheat, which needs a Windows kernel driver. Compatibility layers such as Highball, CrossOver and Whisky run entirely in user space, so there is nothing for that driver to load into, and virtual machines have the same limit. Cloud streaming runs the real Windows build remotely, which is why it works.
Can I play HELLDIVERS 2 on Mac with CrossOver or Parallels?
No. The same limit applies to every compatibility layer and to virtual machines: the anti-cheat driver cannot load. Streaming is the only route.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run HELLDIVERS 2 on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.