Moonlight
Moonlight is a macOS game streaming client that lets you play PC games from a compatible host computer on your Mac.
What is Moonlight?
Moonlight is a native macOS game streaming app for playing games from a compatible PC on your local network or over the internet. It is designed for people who want to use their Mac as a lightweight client while the game runs on a more powerful host computer. Moonlight supports streaming from Sunshine and previously worked with NVIDIA GameStream-compatible setups, making it useful for desktop gaming, couch play, and remote access to a personal game library. Common use cases include playing Windows PC games on a MacBook, using a controller with a larger display, and accessing a gaming PC from another room without moving hardware. Moonlight is developed as an open-source project associated with Cameron Gutman and is available for multiple platforms, including macOS.
Key features
- Stream games from a compatible Windows PC to your Mac
- Connect to Sunshine hosts for local or remote play
- Use game controllers and keyboard or mouse input
- Play at high resolutions and high frame rates when the host and network support it
- Access your PC game library from another room or display
- Use hardware-accelerated video decoding on supported Macs
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Safety overview
Status: Safe
Moonlight is legitimate game streaming software. It needs network access to discover and connect to your host PC, and it can receive video, audio, and input data as part of normal remote play. That behavior is expected for this type of app. As with any remote streaming tool, use hosts you trust and keep your host software updated so your gaming PC is not exposed more broadly than you intend.
Recommendation: Keep Moonlight if you use your Mac to stream games from a PC. If you no longer use game streaming, you can remove it without affecting macOS, though you may also want to remove its support files if you are cleaning up space.
Common paths
/Applications/Moonlight.app~/Applications/Moonlight.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/com.moonlight-stream.Moonlight
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/Moonlight
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/com.moonlight-stream.Moonlight.plist
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