Working with legacy macOS versions, Steam has announced that it will end support for macOS 10.11 (“El Capitan”) and 10.12 (“Sierra”) as of September 1, 2023. Users need to refresh their systems to stay up to date. 

Here are the details and effects of this decision!

According to the latest announcement by Valve, the company announced that it will discontinue Steam support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 versions from January 1, 2024. In a new statement that followed, it stated that they will no longer support macOS 10.11 (“El Capitan”) and 10.12 (“Sierra”) versions from September 1, 2023.

Steam Client Will No Longer Work on Older macOS Versions

This means that the Steam client cannot run on the specified versions of macOS. Users must upgrade to a newer version of macOS to continue playing games and using other products they purchased through Steam. Following this decision, the minimum macOS version supported by the platform will be 10.13 High Sierra.

Google Chrome Ends Old macOS Versions

The main reason for this decision, as in previous cases, was cited as Google Chrome. Using the latest features on Steam requires new versions of Google Chrome, which no longer work on older versions of macOS. This situation directly affects Steam, bringing the end of the road for older versions.

After this decision of Steam, it has become mandatory to update their systems for those using older macOS versions. 

The 10 Best PC Games To Play In 2023

So what do you think about this subject? Don’t forget to share your views with us in the comments section!

Why is Steam ending support for macOS El Capitan and Sierra?

According to a statement that was published on Steam’s Support portal, there are 2 reasons for ending support for macOS 10.11 and 10.12.

Valve says that the embedded version of Google Chrome, that powers its game client, will not run on older versions of macOS. In case you weren’t aware, the Steam client on desktops runs on a custom version of Google’s Chromium browser.

Google Chrome 103 was the last version of the browser that supports macOS 10.11 and macOS 10.12. Chrome 104, which was released in August 2022, requires macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.

The other reason given by Valve for ending support for El Capitan and Sierra is that future versions of Steam will require feature and security updates that are available in macOS 10.13 and above.

Valve cited pretty much the same reasons for ending support for Steam on Windows 7 and 8, the change is set to happen in January 2024.

Steam will stop working on macOS El Capitan and Sierra from September 1, 2023. In order to continue using the Steam client, and to play games tied to your account, you will need to update to a more recent version of macOS.

Steam’s latest hardware survey does not even list the numbers for macOS 10.11 and 10.12.1, they may not have a lot of users. The chart mentions that 45.68% of Mac users were on macOS 13 Ventura.

macOS 12 Monterey coming in second at 10.76%, followed by macOS Catalina 10.15.7 which had 5.45% of the total share. Now that may seem really odd, but there is a reason why these numbers were high compared to the legacy versions. macOS Catalina 10.15 was the first version of Apple’s desktop operating system that ended support for 32-bit apps.

This move effectively killed tons of apps and games, most of which were not updated to support newer versions of macOS. So that’s probably why older versions of macOS don’t have a lot of users on Steam.

The announcement from Valve notes that Apple ended technical support for the two operating systems in 2018, and 2019 respectively. Steam is recommending users to upgrade to a newer version of the OS as soon as possible to protect their systems from malware, and security exploits which hackers could use to steal the credentials of Steam accounts, etc.

While that may sound like a canned response, it does make a fair point, user’s security should be paramount. The problem is that upgrading to a new version of macOS is not exactly convenient for users who have old MacBooks, iMac, etc.

That said, if you do have an old Mac that is no longer updated by Apple, you may want to take a look at the OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

The community-driven project allows older Mac machines to be updated to macOS Big Sur, Monterey and Ventura. Refer to the getting started guide for more information about how to install it on your system.

I think it is also worth noting that the Steam client for macOS is not a native Apple Silicon app, i.e. it runs on Rosetta 2. Maybe Valve should consider making a proper app that is optimized for the OS.