How to control a Steam game's volume separately on Mac

Steam has no volume mixer, so there's no Steam setting that turns one game down on its own. On a Mac your options are the game's own in-game audio slider, if it has one, or your Mac's single master output — which drags your music, browser, and calls down with the game. To set a Steam game's volume by itself, and especially to nudge it from the keyboard mid-session, you need a per-app mixer that gives the game its own fader independent of everything else running.

It's a common surprise. People assume Steam works like a console dashboard with a master game volume, but the Steam client is a store and launcher, not an audio panel. The only sound settings Steam exposes are for its own notifications and friend chat, under Steam → Settings → Friends & Chat and the notifications section. Those don't touch the game at all. Once a game launches, its audio goes straight into the same shared macOS output as every other app, at whatever level the game decides, and macOS gives you exactly one lever over that: the master volume that moves everything.

First, check the game's own audio settings

The free, correct first move is the game's built-in volume. Most bigger titles carry an audio or sound section in their options menu, often split into master, music, effects, and voice sliders. Pull the master down and only that game gets quieter — your Spotify, your Discord, and your browser stay exactly where they were, because each is a separate app with its own level. If the game splits its sliders out, you can go further: drop the music and effects while leaving dialogue up, which is often what you actually want.

The catch is the same one every game has on a Mac. That slider lives inside a menu you usually have to pause into, so it's fine to set once before a session but useless the moment the game gets loud mid-fight. And it only exists if the developer bothered to include it — which, on Mac Steam, is far from guaranteed.

When a Steam game gives you no slider

Plenty of Mac Steam games ship with thin audio options or none at all. Lightweight indies, older releases, and titles ported through translation layers often expose a single on/off for sound, a music toggle, or nothing. When there's no in-game slider, there's no in-game way to hold the game under your other audio. The game plays at its own chosen level, and your only built-in control is the master output, which pulls your music and calls down alongside it. That's the wall the free route hits.

You also can't route around it inside Steam. There's no hidden per-game volume in the client, no overlay slider, and no launch option that sets a level. The Steam overlay can show framerate and friends; it can't turn the game down. If the game has no slider of its own, Steam won't add one.

Why the Mac volume keys can't isolate a game

It's worth being clear about the root cause. macOS mixes every running app into one shared output stream, and the volume keys, the menu-bar slider, and Control Center all move that single master level. There is no native panel that says "this game at 50%, everything else at 100%." Windows has had a per-app Volume Mixer for years; macOS never shipped the equivalent. So a Steam game arrives at its own loud level, your music arrives at its own, and the one control the system hands you moves both at once. That gap is exactly why a whole category of Mac audio utilities exists.

The real fix: a per-app mixer that gives the game its own fader

A per-app volume mixer sits at the OS audio layer and gives every running app its own level in one place — the panel Apple left out. Because it works on whatever is producing sound, it can set a Steam game's volume even when the game itself offers no slider. Tools in this space include Background Music (free, open source), SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba (a deep menu-bar mixer with per-app EQ, $49 one-time as of version 6), and Fader (paid, keyboard-first). They all set per-app volume; the difference you feel day to day is how fast you can reach the control once the game gets loud.

Fader's whole bet is that the fastest controller you own is already under your hands. You hit a toggle hotkey, the keyboard becomes a mixer — one letter column is the game, the next is your music — and you ride levels with keystrokes without alt-tabbing out. A cutscene blares louder than the menus? Tap the game down two notches and keep playing; your music never moves. Because it works at the audio layer, it handles the ported and indie games that never gave you a slider to begin with, which is where the built-in route leaves you stuck.

If you'd rather not pay, Background Music genuinely does the job — it's a solid free per-app mixer, and for a level you set once before you start playing it's plenty. What you trade is the reach: a menu-bar list you click into versus a keystroke from inside the game. For a game you re-balance against voice chat and music throughout a session, that reach is the difference between a mixer you actually use and one you forget is installed. If the loud game is fighting your squad specifically, the direction of the fix is the same one covered in how to turn your game down so you can hear Discord. And if you also capture or stream your play, it's worth reading the full streamer's Mac audio setup before you buy anything.

Bottom line

Steam won't turn one game down for you — the client has no volume mixer, only toggles for its own pings. The right free first move is the game's own audio slider, and for a set-and-forget level it's all you need. Where it runs out is the many Mac games with no usable slider, and any moment you need to re-balance without pausing. macOS gives you one master volume and nothing finer, so a per-app mixer is the fix. If reaching the control in a keystroke, mid-session, is what you care about, that's exactly what Fader is built for.