How to Play PC Games on iPhone

While you can't directly install PC games on an iPhone, you aren't out of options. In this article, I'll show you a few ways to play PC titles on your phone.

How to Play Computer Games on iPhone using Cloud Gaming Platforms

A cloud gaming service is the most reliable option for playing PC games on iPhone. Cloud Gaming lets you stream games over the Internet to play on your computer, phone, or tablet.

The leading services—GeForce Now by NVIDIA, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and Amazon Luna—offer subscriptions to large libraries of games, some of which are PC titles. There are positives and negatives to all three services for iPhone users:

• On the plus side: They're all compatible with the iPhone, giving you access to PC and console games. Plus, if you use these services at home, you can also use them on the go and continue the game you're already playing.
• The downside: None of them have apps for iPhone (they all have entries in the App Store, but they're for managing your account or, for Luna, to use your iPhone as a controller). A dedicated app is the way to get the best performance and control options, which will matter to PC gamers. Without a dedicated app, you stream games from all three services through the iPhone's pre-installed Safari browser. That's not a recipe for great performance or controls.

The bottom line is to sign up for a cloud gaming account (listed above) and follow their steps to get started.

How to Play Computer Games on iPhone Using Steam Link

If you prefer to play your PC games using Steam, Steam Link is a program that runs on your Windows PC or Mac and streams games to your iPhone.

To use it, you must set up Steam Link on your Mac or PC and then sync your iPhone to it via the same Wi-Fi network. Once the initial setup is complete, you can play from anywhere, on the go, using the Steam Link iPhone app.

PC Games Can't Be Installed on an iPhone

You can run games written for the PC because those games are compatible with Windows or macOS, and the iPhone doesn't use those operating systems. iPhones run iOS. All of that means the PC games you already have aren't iPhone-compatible.

In some cases, an iPhone version of a PC game may be available in the App Store (though that's less likely true of the latest AAA games and won't be an option for Xbox/Playstation exclusives).

Additionally, there are no PC emulators that run on the iPhone.