Native Support for Apple Silicon: Better Performance and Improved Battery Life

[thejamesdg_rblx]

Hi Creators,

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Apple silicon support for Roblox and Roblox Studio! This brings improved performance to our Mac users with Apple silicon devices.

Roblox will now harness the upgraded performance and efficiency of Apple silicon. Dive into your favorite Roblox experiences with improved speed, making your sessions even more immersive and exciting. We expect that creators using Studio will also see a better performance, improved battery life and ultimately build experiences faster.

Most users will automatically be updated to the new Apple silicon enabled version of Roblox and Studio on their Macs. If you want to update immediately, you can do so by following these steps.

To verify if your Mac supports Apple silicon, go to:

1. About this Mac > Overview

2. Chip section should include either Apple M1 or Apple M2

   

Going forward, Apple silicon machines will automatically update to the new native builds.

What’s next

We are grateful for your continued support and dedication. Your feedback and enthusiasm has been instrumental in shaping this update.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We remain committed to delivering the best possible experience for our community.

Thank you.

[devSparkle]

I can’t begin to describe how much smoother this is. Thank you to everyone that worked in this update!

[mrparker_lol (mrparker)]

I followed the steps in the linked support article, and it seems like I still get the Intel build of Roblox even after a fresh install - is there anything special I have to do to obtain it, or is it still slowly rolling out? Thanks for releasing this.

Minor update (again): Roblox, if already installed, now downloads the correct version for Apple Silicon. However, Roblox downloaded from the website still downloads an installer meant for Intel - I hope Roblox makes the binary in the DMG universal in the future, which will make this script completely irrelevant except for the FPS unlock feature!
Final edit!
The script below now installs Roblox Player & Studio without the need to install Roblox first! The screenshot below shows you can now use the Apple Silicon builds for both!

Bookmark this post (or like it) so you can remember the script, as it is still required to run Roblox on Apple Silicon. Share it with your friends that need it, too. Run it when you want to install Roblox, or if you want to install the proper versions after an update. The script no longer requires Roblox be installed to use, and no longer relies on Rosetta at all as a result.

curl -fSSL https://mrparker.dev/scripts/roblox.sh | bash

The source, as before, is available by following the link directly: https://mrparker.dev/scripts/roblox.sh. The Gist is also available if needed, too.

For those who are curious: I used mitmproxy in order to get the URLs that the official launchers use, and the script fetches & downloads the binaries directly from the Roblox CDN meant for Apple Silicon instead of Intel.

Old edits preserved below:

Old Instructions

Edit 6: You need to re-run this script when Roblox updates. Keep this post in mind or bookmark it if you need to find it again. I hope Roblox fixes the launcher and makes it a universal binary - so that way it also doesn’t need Rosetta to install Roblox and also so it installs the correct version for the architecture.

Edit 5: Clearing some confusion - the script below doesn’t currently work for Studio, only the Player. I will update this post if it does work for Studio in the future. Read more below under the “More info on downloading Roblox Studio” to learn more.

Edit 4: Made a script to make this a lot more easier™ for everyone
Shortened down to just a single command:

curl -fSSL https://mrparker.dev/scripts/roblox.sh | bash

Run the above in a terminal, and it will do the same thing as before.

If you want to view the source code, I encourage you to do so if you want to here. Or, you can visit the link directly here: https://mrparker.dev/scripts/roblox.sh. Or both - I encourage people to only run scripts they trust.

The link above just serves the script from the gist. If there is any changes, the link above will update when re-ran - no need to check this post for an updated script.

More info on downloading Roblox Studio

Unfortunately, I can only get the installer, not the binary like with the Roblox Player - so I don’t believe this method would work with that unfortunately. If anyone knows of a CDN endpoint which just has the Studio binary and not installer, I will edit this post to notify people that the script works with Studio.

In the meantime, if you’re a programmer, look into using Rojo instead of Studio whenever possible - it prevents a lot of headache, not to mention code completion is a lot better (stability is a lot better, too).

Edit: This is how you can get the Apple Silicon build right now:

Step 1: Create a script to download the ARM build - for this tutorial we’ll call the script roblox.sh (create it in your home folder)

version=$(wget https://setup.rbxcdn.com/channel/zmacarm64/mac/arm64/version -q -O -)
wget https://setup.rbxcdn.com/channel/zmacarm64/mac/arm64/${version}-RobloxPlayer.zip

run the script in your terminal with the following command:

sh roblox.sh

It will download a zip file containing the RobloxPlayer.app from Roblox’s CDN.

NOTE: If you get an error saying “wget” doesn’t exist, download Homebrew and use the following command:

homebrew install wget

Then re-run the script above

2nd Step: Open finder (if not already open) and go to the folder you ran the script from, double click to unzip the zip file

3rd Step: Open a second Finder tab (or window) and press Shift + Command + G and copy and paste:

/Applications/Roblox.app/Contents/MacOS

The above action will navigate directly into the folder we need to replace Roblox.app in.

4th Step: Drag and drop the unzipped RobloxPlayer.app into the MacOS folder inside Roblox.app

5th Step: Delete Roblox.app inside the folder

6th Step: Rename RobloxPlayer.app in the folder to Roblox.app

Now you are using the native build of Roblox for Apple Silicon - all future launches of the game from the website or icons will launch the native build!

[devSparkle]

I found that Roblox can change to Intel when joining a game. Perhaps it requires a game server started after the update?

[mrparker_lol (mrparker)]

That doesn’t help - I joined a game of mine and with a fresh server it still uses the Intel build. I think it’s still just rolling out.

[BillB1ox (Will)]

I found that the installer is still Intel. Are there plans to make the Installer Universal so people don’t need to install Roblox with Rosetta?

Otherwise, I notice a big difference in performance when using Roblox and Roblox Studio!

[BlockyMarco (Tee Vee)]

This is amazing! Glad for the apple silacon supprt

[parker02311]

Will Roblox also be considering adding support for ARM based Windows? For those that aren’t aware Apple Silicon is based off of ARM architecture, so theoretically this could be an easy addition.

[eemsias (saismeesaimonsaimes)]

Could we get Linux support too? Surely it could be good with over two million Steam Decks in consumers’ hands.

[Kiesere]

This is awesome news!
Can’t wait to try it.

Many appreciations to the Roblox team.

[smashbros122 (whiteroach)]

Awesome to finally see this happen, I’ve wanted to move to the Mac ecosystem since the new silicon was released, and Roblox finally having native support for it brings me one step closer to transitioning one day. Now I just have to wait for Apple to stop soldering the freaking storage on their devices

[OneEDM (EDM)]

Thanks to the team who worked on this update! Been using the Apple Silicon Client and Studio for a bit now and it’s been awesome!

[S03D (S_O)]

We’ve done it! This is going to be such game changer for all mac users especially the base model M series Apple Silicon to have good stable gaming performance!

[Usering]

Bought a brand new Windows laptop 12 days ago knowing Apple Silicon support was around the corner, but not expecting it to happen so quickly. I haven’t been able to use Mac for Roblox development in years, so I’m very excited to make the swap. And thankfully I’m still in Best Buy’s 15 day return policy.

[OneEDM (EDM)]

Apple Silicon is awesome, you won’t regret the switch!

Moving to an Apple Silicon Mac after previously using a relatively high end Windows laptop was just a night and day difference for me. The battery life is insane, the laptop stays cool and quiet, and its performance is really impressive.

[Kanoxia]

After following the instructions you linked in the post, it seems as though I’m still given the Intel build.
Note I’m on an M1 Macbook Pro (2020) model.

[NeoInversion (Inversion)]

If anybody else has trouble upgrading, try deleting Roblox Studio from your Applications folder and downloading the Studio installer from the Creator Dashboard. That worked for me.

[MeTooIDK (ikun)]

@thejamesdg_rblx

these steps

after opened. it upgraded to intel version.

[M1Jy (0idk)]

I have seen no changes at all, still the same battery drain.