nxnative, an open-source project developed by seedds, is attempting to run Nintendo Switch games natively on Apple Silicon devices. In tests, Monster Hunter Rise achieved a stable 60 FPS on the base M1 MacBook Air without relying on traditional emulation.
nxnative requires users to provide their own game files and prod.keys, then convert the content into applications usable on iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Since both the Switch and Apple Silicon use the Arm64 instruction set, the project rewrites game code to allow direct execution on Apple chips.
The project uses a small host to replace the Switch's Horizon OS and rebuilds Nintendo's NVN graphics interface on top of Metal. The shader translation borrows from Ryujinx's achievements, while the overall approach is inspired by d2r-mobile, which previously brought Diablo II: Resurrected to mobile devices.
YouTube creator Andrew Tsai conducted tests using a base M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and no fan. Unicorn Overlord, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, and Dark Souls: Remastered all ran successfully, but Doom Eternal failed to launch.
The project's README currently lists around 70 tested games, with target devices mostly being iPhone 15 Pro or newer models, as well as iPads equipped with M1 or newer chips; Mac applications require additional builds. nxnative currently does not support online features or amiibo, and game compatibility varies. Individual success stories do not guarantee that all titles in the library will run smoothly.