It is possible to install and play Android games with Genymotion Desktop, but there are some considerations and limitations to be taken into account.
1. Most games are only available for ARM or ARM64
This means that the result will differ depending on the system you use.
Note
The most compatible setup to play modern Android games is an Apple Mac M series with the latest version of Genymotion Desktop.
PC (Windows/Linux) and old Mac (Intel x86_64)
On PC (Windows/Linux) and old Apple Mac series (with Intel x86_64 chip), Genymotion Desktop virtual devices architecture is x86 (32bit) or x86_64 (64bit): this means it cannot run games compiled for arm or arm64.
As a result, many games will not appear or install in Google Play Store and installing them from an APK will fail.
To workaround this, you can try flashing ARM translation tools by following this tutorial.
Please note, however, that the result is not guaranteed and using ARM translation is not officially supported. Use at your own risks!
Important
Some modern games are built for arm64 only ; they will not work on Genymotion Desktop for PC (Windows/Linux) and Mac with Intel x86_64 chip.
Apple Mac M series (with Apple Silicon SoC)
Support for the Mac M series has been introduced with Genymotion Desktop 3.4.0 with native arm64 Android images.
This means that, if you are using a mac M series, you will not need to install any ARM translation tools: you can install your game directly from Google Play Store!
This is the most compatible hardware if you plan to play Android games with Genymotion Desktop.
2. Google Play Store is not preinstalled
You need to install the Open Gapps package to get Google Play Store. We have made our best to make the installation as simple as possible: you will find all the detailed step at How to install Google Play Store (and other Google Apps) in Genymotion?
3. There are no gaming specific enhancements
Genymotion Desktop does not offer any gaming enhancement features, such as macros, keyboard mapping or Bluetooth support for controllers yet. If you wish to help us implement such features, feel free to open a discussion at our Github public discussion board.
4. Some games detect that Genymotion Desktop is an emulator
Some modern games, especially co-op and multi-player games, detect root and emulation which makes them incompatible with Genymotion Desktop.
At the moment, there are no known workarounds to get those games working with Genymotion Desktop, but we are working on non-rooted (user build) images which will improve game compatibility in the future.