Madeira emulator runs Red Dead Redemption 2 on iPhone 18 Pro

The experimental open-source project Madeira has successfully demonstrated Red Dead Redemption 2 running locally on an iPhone 18 Pro. Unlike cloud streaming or official mobile ports, this achievement relies on on-device emulation to run the Windows PC version of the game.

The technical process involves a complex translation chain: FEX converts x86-64 code to ARM64, Wine handles Windows system calls for iOS, and the madeira-d3d12 runtime translates DirectX 12 to Apple’s Metal API. In recent tests, the game achieved performance exceeding 30 FPS at approximately 720p resolution, with brief peaks approaching 60 FPS.

Developers note that this is a research-focused project rather than a commercial product. Because it requires sideloading and JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation, it is not available through the App Store. Performance is currently subject to thermal throttling by iOS to prevent overheating.