PSA: Steam will soon stop supporting macOS 11 Big Sur

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Steam app for macOS updated with hardware acceleration for better performance

Heads-up if your Mac is still running macOS 11 Big Sur: Valve has announced that, in a few weeks, the Steam Client will stop running on these Macs due to a Chromium compatibility limitation. Here are the details.

Support will end on October 15

According to a blog post spotted by user wickedplayer494 on Reddit, the Steam Client will stop working on Macs running macOS 11 Big Sur on October 15.

Here’s why, as explained by Valve:

“This change is required as core features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of macOS. In addition, future versions of Steam will require macOS feature and security updates only present in macOS 12 and above.”

In case your Mac is still running macOS 11, either due to work compliance or due to older hardware, be warned: you won’t be able to run Steam, or anything you might have acquired through Steam, unless you update your Mac to a newer version than macOS 11 Big Sur.

Valve noted that Apple’s last update to macOS Big Sur was in 2023, so it also encouraged users to update due to security reasons:

“We strongly encourage all macOS 11 users to update sooner rather than later. Apple ended security updates and technical support for macOS 11 in 2023. Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched. That malware can cause your computer, Steam and games to perform poorly or crash. That malware can also be used to steal the credentials for your Steam account or other services.”

This announcement comes as Valve prepares to turn Steam for Mac into a native Apple Silicon app, following the sunsetting of Rosetta 2. The company made the announcement and released the first native beta right after WWDC25, and you can find more about it in this post.