Download Raft for macOS

Raft is an ARM-native build, so it runs directly on Apple Silicon Macs without Rosetta. If you have an M1, M2, or M3 machine, you are set.

Craft a plank into a floating fortress

• Turning a tiny plank into a floating fortress through crafting and research.
• Farming, fishing, cooking, and caring for animals — survival with a homely touch.
• Exploring new destinations added in the full release, with voice-acted characters and trading.

A shark tails your raft constantly

• A man-eating shark tails your raft constantly, so repairs become part of daily life.
• You start with nothing but a hook in a vast, empty ocean — patience pays off.
• Official support lives on the Raft Discord, not a traditional help desk.

Drift and craft with a podcast on

Raft pairs well with a podcast or a chat app sitting on a second screen. The rhythm of drifting, hooking debris, and crafting is steady enough that you can half-listen to something else, then snap back to full attention when the shark circles or a new island appears on the horizon.

macOS handles the game politely. On an M3 Pro MacBook Pro it stays responsive even with Safari, Notes, and Music open behind it. Mission Control lets you swipe back to the desktop mid-session without a stutter, and the game resumes cleanly — no black screens, no audio glitches. If you use Universal Control to drag items between a Mac and an iPad, the connection holds fine while Raft runs in the foreground.

Runs cool and quiet on Apple Silicon

The ARM build runs cool and quiet. After two hours of continuous play the fans on an M3 Pro never spun up audibly, and the chassis stayed warm rather than hot. Frame pacing feels consistent at the default settings, even with a sprawling raft loaded with crop plots, water purifiers, and animal pens. Memory use sits modestly — around 2.5 to 3 GB in our sessions — so it leaves headroom for screen recording or streaming tools if you share your sessions.

Stability holds up well for a Wineskin-wrapped title. No crashes during crafting, sailing, or underwater exploration. The one quirk: quitting from the in-game menu occasionally leaves the process hanging. A quick Force Quit from the Dock sorts it in seconds.

More guided and less lonely than Stranded Deep

Next to Stranded Deep, Raft feels more guided and less lonely. Stranded Deep drops you onto a desert island and lets you figure out thirst, poisoning, and shelter with minimal hand-holding. Raft gives you a research table and a clear upgrade path — you always know what you are working toward, which suits players who like visible progress markers.

Against The Forest, the tone is gentler. The Forest leans into horror with cannibal patrols and cave diving that genuinely unsettles. Raft has tension — the shark is a persistent threat — but it lives in sunlight and salt spray. If you want base-building with a side of dread, go Forest. If you prefer calm punctuated by danger, Raft fits better.

Subnautica shares the open-water setting and the crafting loop, but it is a solo deep-sea story with a fixed narrative arc. Raft is looser, more social, and built for co-op drifting. You can hop into a friend’s world, help expand the raft, then leave without disrupting a storyline. For players who bounce between solo and multiplayer sessions, that flexibility is a quiet strength.

Back up your save inside the app bundle

Save files live inside the app bundle at Raft.app/Contents/Resources/drive_c/Program Files/Raft/save. If you move the app or reinstall, back up that folder first — your floating home depends on it.

• Full game launch out of Early Access.
• New destinations, enemies, and items to discover.
• Voice acting, fresh characters, and trading mechanics added.

• macOS: Apple Silicon native (ARM build)
• Architecture: Apple Silicon