Nintendo Switch games are now playable natively on Apple's silicon
A new open-source project is making the rounds on GitHub that lets users play their own Switch games natively on Apple Silicon devices. nxnative targets iPhones, iPads, and, not too surprisingly, Apple Silicon Macs. nxnative doesn't use emulation; it runs games natively because the Switch and Apple Silicon chips share the ARM architecture. The project's footnotes, however, indicate it has been built with AI assistance.
How Does nxnative Work?
Nxnative leverages the shared ARM64 instruction architecture of Apple Silicon and Nintendo Switch processors to adapt the Switch game code for execution. It also replaces Nintendo’s Horizon OS service and translates graphics instructions from NVIDIA’s NVN API to Apple’s proprietary Metal API. While this adds some overhead, it's quite small compared with conventional CPU-based emulation.
Performance on nxnative
YouTuber Andrew Tsai ran four Switch games simultaneously in separate windows on a MacBook Pro. While Tsai did not provide the exact configuration of his MacBook Pro, other than that it uses an M3 Max chip, his demonstration showed that multiple games can run at a stable 60 FPS at the same time, which is quite impressive. Tsai also offered a glimpse of performance in individual games, along with results on a MacBook Air with an M1 chip.
Tsai also asserted that nearly all Switch games can run through nxnative, though performance may vary and some games may need additional tinkering. Monster Hunter Rise maintained a steady 60 FPS on an M1 chip, but Dark Souls Remastered had texture and visual glitches, no matter how powerful the hardware.
Since the games need to be built from scratch, the community has graciously provided instructions for this task, called recipes. These recipes are being devised at an explosive rate, with Tsai saying only 40 existed when he started preparing his video, and the number reached 58 by the time he finished recording. Currently, the number stands at 80 games, with more being added every day.
Requirements for nxnative
nxnative also supports iPhones and iPads, and originally started with those devices in mind. It can build games using recipes into an IPA format, which can then be sideloaded. Users also need to dump their own game files; the GitHub page includes instructions and recipes for building. The requirements for nxnative, as per the GitHub page, are: iOS / iPadOS 26 or later on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer (A17 Pro chip or later) or an iPad with an M1 chip or later.
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