Hello people!
Facing a challenge here and hoping someone in the community has cracked it!
I’m using a MacBook with an M1 chip and trying to play Punishing Gray Raven, but none of the Android emulators I’ve tried seem to work reliably. Most crash, don’t support ARM, or have performance issues. Has anyone successfully run Android games on an Apple Silicon Mac?
I’d appreciate any working emulator suggestions or alternative methods—especially from folks who’ve managed to make it work!
Cheers and thanks in advance for any tips! 
Hi @smrity.maharishsarin,
Responding to your query about getting Punishing Gray Raven working on your M1 Mac! It sounds like a frustrating emulator situation you’re facing.
If you’re specifically trying to run Punishing Gray Raven and it has an iOS version, PlayCover can be a great workaround. It lets you sideload iOS apps (IPA files) on M1/M2 Macs and run them natively using Apple’s architecture.
My experience?
Well, I used PlayCover to play Genshin Impact on an M1 Mac with great results. Since there’s no emulation, performance is native-level. If you can get the right IPA file for PGR, it’s a smooth way to bypass Android emulators altogether.
Hope this alternative idea helps you out! Good luck! 
Hello @smrity.maharishsarin, continuing with the discussion after considering @babitakumari’s helpful suggestion, I wanted to add another perspective for getting things running on your Mac.
I agree that standard emulators can be tricky on Apple Silicon. While most mainstream emulators (like BlueStacks) don’t yet work well with M1 chips, Android Studio’s Emulator now supports ARM images that are compatible with Apple Silicon. It requires some tweaking, but it can work for simpler games or app testing.
From my experience, I got this set up for UI testing of Android apps—not perfect for heavy 3D games, but functional. If you’re primarily interested in testing Android functionality (especially for QA purposes), pairing this with LambdaTest lets you offload testing to cloud-based Android devices without stressing your Mac.
Hope this provides another avenue for you to explore! Wishing you success! 
Greetings @smrity.maharishsarin, @BabitaKumari, and @Ian-Partridge,
Following this interesting conversation about running Android applications and games on M1 Macs, I wanted to share an approach that bypasses local emulation entirely.
Cloud-based Android testing and game access
Instead of trying to run the game locally, use cloud-based platforms that offer virtual Android devices you can access via browser—no emulation or compatibility headaches on your M1 Mac.
In my experience, I’ve used LambdaTest to test Android apps in different OS versions and screen resolutions directly from Safari. While it’s primarily aimed at QA, if you want to ensure your game or app works across Android devices without relying on unstable emulators, LambdaTest offers a hassle-free solution.
Hope this alternative perspective is useful for your needs! Best of luck with your endeavors.