How To Download & Install Minecraft on a Mac

By Nic •  Updated: 01/31/22 •  3 min read

This article will show you how to get Minecraft Java Edition on MacOS. Why would you want Minecraft on your Mac? Well, Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time, and it runs great on modern Macs meaning it, in my opinion, one of the best Mac games in general. Thus, without anymore delay, here is how to download and install Minecraft on Mac!

How To Download & Install Minecraft on a Mac

Step 1) Buy Minecraft Java Edition

The first step of getting Minecraft for Mac is purchasing it. Now, if you already have Minecraft Java Edition purchased, you can skip to step two. Otherwise, click here to go the Minecraft purchase page. Once you are here, select ‘Computer', and then select ‘Minecraft Java Edition'. Minecraft Java Edition is the only version of Minecraft that works on MacOS.

From there, click ‘Buy', and go through the purchase process. This will include logging into a Microsoft account. This required to purchase Minecraft.

Step 2) Download The Minecraft Launcher for Mac

Now that you own Minecraft Java Edition, we can move on to downloading Minecraft for MacOS. To do this, click the ‘Download Minecraft' button above or simple click this link. That will take you to the official Minecraft download page. Once you are there, click on the green ‘Download for macOS' button. When you do, Minecraft for Mac will start downloading.

Step 3) Install The Minecraft Launcher on Mac

Once you have Minecraft for macOS downloaded, you will need to install it. To install the Minecraft for Mac Launcher, double click on the ‘Minecraft.dmg' file you downloaded. This will open up a simple installer where you just need to drag the Minecraft application into your Applications folder. It's that easy to install Minecraft on macOS.

Step 4) Open The Minecraft Launcher for Mac

With Minecraft installed on your Mac, we need to open it. Do this by going to your Applications folder and double-clicking on it. Now at first, this is going to give you a security warning. This is because Minecraft is a 3rd party Mac app. To fix this, open up system preferences, click on ‘Security & Privacy', select ‘General', and and you will see the warning for Minecraft at the bottom. Click ‘Open Anyway'. You can now open up Minecraft from your applications folder without any issues!

Minecraft on a Mac

Step 5) Login & Play Minecraft on Mac

Now, when you first open the Minecraft Launcher on Mac, you will need to login to your Microsoft account, and when you do, you will be able to click the big green Play button to start playing Minecraft on a Mac! From there, you can start a single player world, join a server, install some mods, or do anything you want.

Nic

I have been playing and modding Minecraft since 2010. In 2014, I started getting interested in creating Minecraft servers and teaching people how to do it online. This led to thousands of videos covering how to do anything and everything in Minecraft!

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