Cassie Gardner 
Valve has officially stated that Counter-Strike 2 will not have Mac support, leaving Apple gamers frustrated.
Counter-Strike 2 is the successor to the incredibly popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. While CSGO was macOS-compatible, players found themselves unable to play Counter-Strike 2 on launch, with no option to roll back the forced update away from CSGO. That isn’t going to change.
In a FAQ on the Steam website, Valve stated the decision to cut macOS support was made because “Combined, [macOS users] represented less than one percent of active CSGO players.” It was confirmed that CS2 will still be supported on 64-bit Windows and Linux, but can Mac users do anything?
Will Valve bring macOS support to Counter-Strike 2?
It is unlikely that Valve will add full macOS support for Counter-Strike 2. The decision is undoubtedly frustrating for Counter-Strike fans who just so happen to be Mac users.
The decision is somewhat odd from Valve. Even being only around one percent of the player base, a game like CSGO often reaches well over one million concurrent players at a time. This means that there are likely tens of thousands of potentially active Counter-Strike 2 players on Mac. This decision comes at a time where macOS support is becoming more common, including new hit games like Baldur’s Gate 3.
This is a far cry from the Apple support that Valve showed with previous games. Team Fortress 2 famously celebrated the addition of macOS support with the Earbuds item which became one of the most valuable items on Steam for a long while. Other games from Valve including Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal, and Left 4 Dead 2 all support macOS, as does Steam itself.
How Mac users can get refunds for Counter-Strike 2 purchases
macOS users can get a refund for Counter-Strike 2 Prime Status Upgrades through Steam Support in the Steam Client. Steam Support can be found under the Help menu on the Steam client, and users can find “Counter-Strike 2” under the “Recent Products” section.
There are some other conditions, however. Valve states that as long as the majority of CSGO gameplay was on macOS and the game was played on macOS at least once between the start of the Counter-Strike 2 limited test start and the official release, users can get a refund on Prime Status Upgrades. Mac users can get a refund for Counter-Strike 2 purchases until December 1, 2023.
There is also an offer from Valve for any accounts that don’t have hardware to play Counter-Strike 2 to download a legacy version of CSGO. This legacy version is a frozen build with no current or future support and does not allow for online matchmaking. After January 1, 2024 this version will have limited or no access to portions of the game such as inventory that is accessed through the game coordinator.
