Roguelike Games for Mac: 12 on Steam With a macOS Build
Which roguelike games can you play on a Mac?
Twelve roguelikes on Steam list a macOS build and are covered below (as of October 2026): Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Streets of Rogue, Dome Keeper, Into the Breach, Nuclear Throne, Peglin, Caves of Qud, Dicey Dungeons, Tales of Maj’Eyal and Shattered Pixel Dungeon. Start with Dead Cells, because a run that ends still carries some progress into the next one. Pick Into the Breach if you would rather plan than react.
The famous ones run on a Mac too. Hades, Hades II, Slay the Spire, Balatro, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Inscryption all list macOS on Steam (as of October 2026), and Hades II’s Mac requirements say “Requires an Apple processor”. Our lists of the most replayable games and of roguelike deckbuilders cover them, so this list spends its twelve rows on other games.
Updated October 2026.
How did I check each game’s Mac build?
Steam’s store data flags every game for Windows, macOS and Linux, and each game here had the macOS flag on 2 October 2026. For roguelikes that flag is not enough. An older game can keep it on a 32-bit build that no macOS since Mojave will open: Nuclear Throne did until December 2025, and Dungeons of Dredmor still does. So I read each page’s Mac requirements, then looked each game up on PCGamingWiki, and on the Steam forums for Nuclear Throne and Dredmor, to see whether the Mac build is 64-bit and whether it runs natively on Apple silicon. One flagged game failed and has its own section below.
Steam’s Roguelike tag holds about 15,300 games (store search, as of October 2026), and about 2,700 are left with the macOS filter on. Fewer than one in five roguelikes on Steam list a Mac build.
A roguelike is a game defined by permadeath plus procedural generation: the dungeon, the items and the enemies are reshuffled every run and dying ends the run, which turns one long game into many short, distinct problems. Our piece on what makes a good roguelike covers where roguelites differ.
Which roguelikes have a Mac build on Steam?
Sorted by review count. Most of these were discounted on the check date, so the price column is the regular US price.
| Game | Kind of roguelike | Regular price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews, % positive (as of October 2026) | Turns or real time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dead Cells | Action platformer | $24.99 | 183,916 · 97% | Real time |
| Darkest Dungeon | Party RPG with a stress meter | $24.99 | 162,858 · 92% | Turns |
| Crypt of the NecroDancer | Rhythm dungeon crawler | $14.99 | 26,528 · 95% | To the beat |
| Streets of Rogue | Top-down immersive sim | $19.99 | 23,112 · 96% | Real time |
| Dome Keeper | Mining and wave defense | $17.99 | 22,525 · 92% | Real time |
| Into the Breach | Mech tactics on a small grid | $14.99 | 22,453 · 94% | Turns |
| Nuclear Throne | Top-down shooter | $11.99 | 19,825 · 96% | Real time |
| Peglin | Pachinko with relics | $19.99 | 17,723 · 84% | Turns |
| Caves of Qud | Traditional, science fantasy sandbox | $29.99 | 12,683 · 95% | Turns |
| Dicey Dungeons | Dice deckbuilder | $14.99 | 11,894 · 89% | Turns |
| Tales of Maj’Eyal | Traditional RPG | $6.99 | 7,481 · 94% | Turns |
| Shattered Pixel Dungeon | Traditional dungeon crawler | $9.99 | 2,212 · 95% | Turns |
| Hellmate | Roguelike deckbuilding chess | ours · unreleased | ours · unreleased | Turns |
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is where I would start a first roguelike on a Mac, because a death is never a total loss: its page says you keep “new paths you’ve unlocked, access to new levels, mutations, abilities and weapons” for later runs. It is a 2D action platformer through a castle that changes every run, and it has the highest share of positive reviews here, 97% (as of October 2026). Its Mac requirements add a hardware line no other page here has: “MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac 2012 or later”.
Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeon punishes you through your party rather than your reflexes. You recruit flawed heroes from 16 classes and lead them into gothic dungeons where stress and disease wear them down as surely as the monsters do, all in turn-based fights. Its Mac page names an OpenGL 3.2 card and recommends 4 GB of memory.
Crypt of the NecroDancer
Crypt of the NecroDancer is the roguelike with a beat. Every move and attack lands on the rhythm of the soundtrack, and its page says you can swap in songs from your own MP3 collection. That feature explains the only split Mac requirement on this list: macOS 10.6 to run the game, 10.7 if you want your own music files.
Streets of Rogue
Streets of Rogue is the one to play with a friend on one Mac. Its page lists online co-op and shared or split screen co-op, and it describes itself as “Nuclear Throne meets Deus Ex”: randomly generated cities you fight, sneak or hack through.
Dome Keeper
Dome Keeper splits every run in two. Between attacks you dig beneath your dome for resources, then hurry back up to defend it from waves of alien monsters, and each trip down is a bet on how much time is left. It is one of two pages here that name Apple chips: “Supports Intel x86 hardware and M1 & M2 chipsets”. It says nothing about later chips, and it gives no minimum macOS version.
Into the Breach
Into the Breach is the turn-based pick: mechs on a small grid against an alien threat, and its page says every enemy attack is telegraphed, so each turn is a puzzle with a counter to find. If it clicks, our list of games like Into the Breach goes further into small-grid tactics.
Nuclear Throne
Nuclear Throne is the twitchiest game here, and its Mac story changed most recently. It is a top-down shooter where mutants fight toward the throne at the end of a ruined world. A Steam forum thread from September 2023 reports that its Steam Mac build was 32-bit and would not open on macOS Catalina or later. The developers’ Update #100 notes of 5 December 2025 list “Updates Mac build to run on 64-bit devices including Apple Silicon.” Its store page still shows no Mac requirements.
Peglin
Peglin is the calmest pick, and its page calls it a turn-based RPG. You fire orbs into a field of pegs, pachinko style, and every peg you pop adds damage, with relics that change the rules between fights. Its 84% positive share (as of October 2026) is the lowest on this list.
Caves of Qud
Caves of Qud is the deepest traditional roguelike here: a science fantasy sandbox where, in its page’s words, you build a character “from over a hundred mutations and cybernetics” and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. It also has the newest Mac minimum on the list, Big Sur 11 with a “Metal capable” graphics card, and the highest regular price.
Dicey Dungeons
Dicey Dungeons suits players who like deckbuilders. You are a giant walking die, balancing a planned strategy against each roll, with six classes such as the Thief, who steals enemy equipment, and the Robot, who plays push-your-luck blackjack for dice. Its page says the free “Reunion” DLC added six new episodes, and its Mac processor line reads “Intel Mac 2 GHz”, with no word on Apple chips. For more of this shape, see why deckbuilder games are addictive.
Tales of Maj’Eyal
Tales of Maj’Eyal is the one for players who want a long character build: a turn-based roguelike RPG with many races and classes, tactical fights and a lore-heavy world. On Steam it is the cheapest game here at $6.99 regular price (as of October 2026), and its developer’s site calls the base game “free, open source”, with a free Mac download next to the Windows and Linux ones. I inspected the app inside that download (version 1.7.6) without running it: it is a 64-bit Intel build with no code signature, so an Apple silicon Mac runs it through Rosetta, and macOS will make you approve it under Privacy & Security, as Apple’s page on opening apps from unidentified developers describes. The Steam page has no Steam Cloud label, so do not count on Steam to carry a save to another computer.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a classic dungeon crawl that is simple to start: six heroes, randomized levels and hundreds of items, according to its page. That page carries Steam’s “Playable without Timed Input” label, so nothing runs on a clock. It is also the most candid Mac page on this list: the minimum names “Intel or Apple Sillicon” [sic], the recommended line is macOS 26 Tahoe, and a note says Rosetta 2 is currently required on Apple silicon Macs.
What do the Mac store pages say about Apple silicon?
The macOS flag only says a build exists. This is what each store page lists under its Mac system requirements, next to what PCGamingWiki, a community wiki, records about the build itself.
| Game | Minimum macOS on the page | Apple chips named on the store page | Apple silicon build per PCGamingWiki | Steam Cloud label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dead Cells | Mavericks 10.9 | No | Unknown | Yes |
| Darkest Dungeon | OSX 10.9 | No | Unknown | Yes |
| Crypt of the NecroDancer | 10.6 (10.7 for your own music) | No | Native | Yes |
| Streets of Rogue | Mac OS X 10.9 | No | Unknown | Yes |
| Dome Keeper | Not given | Yes, M1 and M2 | Native | Yes |
| Into the Breach | macOS 10.13 | No | Native | Yes |
| Nuclear Throne | No Mac requirements listed | No, but the December 2025 update notes name Apple Silicon | Native | Yes |
| Peglin | Mac OS X 10.13 | No | Unknown | Yes |
| Caves of Qud | Big Sur 11 | No | Unknown | Yes |
| Dicey Dungeons | OS X 10.12 | No, says Intel Mac | Unknown | Yes |
| Tales of Maj’Eyal | OSX 10.9 | No | Intel only, runs through Rosetta | No |
| Shattered Pixel Dungeon | macOS 10.12 | Yes, says Rosetta 2 is required | Intel only, runs through Rosetta | Yes |
Read the two Apple columns together. Only Dome Keeper and Shattered Pixel Dungeon name Apple chips on the store page, and Shattered Pixel Dungeon’s mention is a warning that it needs Rosetta, Apple’s translation layer for Intel apps. For the ten pages that name no Apple chip, the requirements cannot tell you whether the build is native; PCGamingWiki lists three of them as native and Tales of Maj’Eyal as Intel-only. The difference will matter, because Rosetta has an end date: per Apple’s Rosetta support page, it stays on Apple silicon Macs through macOS 27, and from macOS 28 it covers only “certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks”. Get Info on an installed game shows which kind of build you have; our idle games for Mac post walks through the steps.
Which roguelike shows a Mac flag but will not run on a current Mac?
Dungeons of Dredmor. Its Steam page lists macOS with a minimum of Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and 5,443 reviews, 94% positive (as of October 2026). But PCGamingWiki lists its Mac build as a 32-bit app with no 64-bit version, and Apple’s page on 32-bit apps says macOS Mojave 10.14 was the last version to run them. In a Steam forum thread asking for a 64-bit Mac version, a developer replied on 14 July 2026 that it will be in “the next major free release”, with no date. Until that ships, buy it for a Windows PC, not a Mac. I left it out of the table for that reason.
Which popular roguelikes have no Mac build on Steam?
Five popular roguelikes have no Mac build on Steam: Risk of Rain 2 (353,359 reviews), Enter the Gungeon (89,935), Noita (89,061), Monster Train (22,965) and Spelunky 2 (22,000), all as of October 2026. Enter the Gungeon lists Linux but not macOS. If one of these was recommended to you, Steam on a Mac will not install it. Our list of games like Monster Train points to card roguelikes in the same spirit.
Which Mac roguelike should you install first?
Dead Cells for a first roguelike, since some progress carries over between runs. Into the Breach if you would rather think than react. Dome Keeper on an Apple silicon Mac, since its page names Apple chips and PCGamingWiki lists a native build. Tales of Maj’Eyal for the cheapest way in: $6.99 regular price on Steam (as of October 2026), or free from its developer. Shattered Pixel Dungeon if you want nothing on a timer.
Quick answers
Can you play roguelikes on a MacBook? Yes. All twelve games in this post list a macOS build on Steam as of October 2026. Read the Mac requirements line before you buy: Dead Cells, for one, asks for a MacBook or MacBook Pro from 2012 or later.
Do these roguelikes run natively on Apple silicon? No, not all twelve, and no store page here promises it. Shattered Pixel Dungeon’s page says it needs Rosetta 2, and PCGamingWiki lists Tales of Maj’Eyal as Intel-only. It lists native builds for Crypt of the NecroDancer, Dome Keeper, Into the Breach and Nuclear Throne. For the other six, check Get Info on the installed app.
Are there free roguelike games for Mac on Steam? None of these twelve is free on Steam. Tales of Maj’Eyal comes closest: $6.99 regular price (as of October 2026), and its base game is a free download from its developer’s site, though that Mac build is Intel-only and unsigned. To try Steam games before paying, see our roundup of roguelike demos on Steam.
How do you find Mac roguelikes on Steam yourself? Filter the Roguelike tag by macOS, then check the build. The Mac flag only means a build exists, so for an older game, read its Mac requirements and look it up on PCGamingWiki for a 64-bit Mac app before you buy.
Where our game fits
Hellmate, our own game, is unreleased and sits beside this list as its last row. Its store page calls it roguelike deckbuilding chess in the seven floors of Hell: each floor belongs to a deadly sin, every sin crowns its own king, and you summon pieces, sling spells and brand your army with sigils to melt the king’s HP before your turns run out. Its deck summons an army onto a chessboard, so each run is a string of board fights rather than a dungeon crawl; our explainer on what a chess deckbuilder is covers the form. Its Steam page lists Windows and macOS, and its Mac requirements state “M1, M2, M3 Silicon Mac & ARM Supported”. The full game is due on Steam on 19 January 2027, but the Hellmate demo also lists macOS and is playable now, and the Steam page for Hellmate is live if you want to follow it.
