CodeWeavers has announced the release of CrossOver 26, the latest version of their paid software that lets you run Windows games and apps on Linux and macOS.
CrossOver 26 ships with Wine 11.0, the latest stable version released in January 2026. It ships over 6,000 changes and fixes, plus NTSync support to improve performance in Windows games and applications and an improved Wayland drive with drag and drop support.
On top of that, there are updated graphics/compatibility layers included in CrossOver 26, including D3DMetal 3.0 for DirectX on Metal (macOS), vkd3d 1.18 for DirectX 12 via Vulkan, DXMT v0.72 and Wine Mono 10.4.1.
In late 2025, a preview build of CrossOver for Linux ARM64 was released, showing impressive results in running x86 Windows games on Linux ARM systems – albeit beefy ones! With Wine 11.0 shipping a mature WOW64 emulator, might we see a stable release soon?
CrossOver 26: Mainly macOS Changes
This update to the ‘commercial version of Wine’ is heavily focused on macOS. It touts compatibility for a fresh set of games on Apple’s desktop OS, including HELLDIVERS 2 with multiplayer, God of War Ragnarök, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Cronos: The New Dawn.
However, a couple of these announced-as-working titles may not work well. CodeWeavers’ own compatibility page reports that a few, like Cronos: The New Dawn will install, but not run. If you plan to use CrossOver on macOS, keep your expectations in check.
What about Linux? CodeWeavers don’t list compatibility ratings for Linux. Some of the games ‘new’ to macOS were already available on Linux natively or via Wine or Valve’s Proton implementation. The ProtonDB database is the best place to check Linux game compatibility.
NTSync Support Enabled in CrossOver
On Linux, CrossOver 26 enables NTSync support on supported Linux kernels (6.14+). Whether your distribution enables this is a different matter.
To check if your Linux kernel has NTSync, open a terminal and run grep -i NTSYNC /boot/config-$(uname -r). Look for CONFIG_NTSYNC=m. If present, check whether the module is loaded by running lsmod | grep ntsync. If you see no result, it isn’t loaded.
CrossOver Isn’t Free, But It Funds Wine
CrossOver is paid software that requires a license to install and use. A free trial is available to help you find out if it’s better than gratis Wine-based tools. If you find it is, you can buy a perpetual license with 12 months support.
A licence costs £60 for 12 months of support and updates (or £44.40 with a limited-time discount code offering 26% off ). After this period expires, your installed version continues to work indefinitely – you just won’t receive new versions or technical support.
Renewals within 30 days of expiration receive a 50% discount.
Why pay for Wine on Linux when you can install it for free? CodeWeavers employs a number Wine developers and contributes heavily upstream to its development, though CrossOver itself includes proprietary additions and UI polish on top.
Existing customer? You can upgrade to CrossOver 26 from today, or download it from your account page.
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