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Downloading Steam games on macOS without installing Steam

by on Jan.01, 2026, under News

macOS has a cool command line tool that allows us to download games from Steam without having to use Steam itself. We may install it using Homebrew:

brew install --cask steamcmd

steamcmd

Inside steamcmd we may then login to our account (this is only necessary for paid apps):

login your_username your_password

and then download the game using the steam app ID (which can be found in a game’s URL on the steam shop):

app_update 123456 validate

The game will then be downloaded and saved to directory:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/

It is particularly useful on macOS, as many indie games simply contain an .app file that can be run without Steam.

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