Apple needs to show it trusts players to track their frame rates and toggle their own graphics settings.
Gaming on Mac has come a long way, but if people are going to take it seriously—like, really seriously—Apple still has some work to do. The new public beta for macOS 26 and its gaming updates won’t convince the naysayers, but I see it as the tipping point, and all Apple needs to do is relax for once and let the players take control.
For macOS 26, Apple added a new Game Overlay and Games app. The former acts as an easy way to adjust brightness, volume, or call friends while in-game. It also has a system for achievements and leaderboards. The latter is a simple launcher for all your games while acting as a way for Apple to take an inch of real estate from Steam’s dominance as a games marketplace.
Game Overlay could be a strong start if it weren’t so barebones. All you need to do is compare the Steam Overlay to Apple’s own. Steam offers game recording, access to voice settings, playtime metrics, clocks, guides, and—most importantly—a way to enable performance monitoring. PC gamers need their FPS counter to know if they’re getting a good experience. Macs have a Metal performance monitor, but it’s buried under a command you have to input into Terminal (type: -g MetalForceHudEnabled -bool yes). Apple has indicated that the two features are going to remain separate.
