It's just simply a money thing. Apple runs a "Build it and they will come" model... as in "look here, we've built powerful hardware capable of AAA gaming... now bring your games to Mac."
The rest of the gaming players have huge allocations of money to subsidize game creation. Gaming competitors allocate some of their cash hoards to buying whole gaming studios to then make their game portfolio into exclusives for a given platform. There have been MANY such opportunities popping up in the last 10-15 years and Apple is not exactly cash starved. How many major game studios have "serious about gaming" Apple acquired?
PC and platform customers are accustomed to paying much more than $1-$5 for games- it's actually "normal" for them. Meanwhile, when the occasional bigger game gets a test on Apple tech, Apple people freak out if the dev wants more than $1-$5 and/or attempts to monetize with some embedded advertising and/or in-app purchases. Where's the money for the devs??? They build the game over years in hopes of making money on it... NOT for charity.
Lastly, the whole Epic games fiasco pits the 64000LB gorilla pounding away at a major game studio in court battle after court battle... while kicking the revenue stream for that game dev out of the store. Feel about this however you want but the message sent to all game developers is that Apple is not nearly the good partner that others are: it's Apple's way or the highway (or expensive legal actions). And Apple steps up for first big cut right off the top, even before the creator of the game gets a nickel. How often do you see Sony or Microsoft pounding away at big game developers for years through legal means?
If you can step outside any brand bias and put yourself in developer shoes: for whom do YOU want to develop big games that can take years of work? A company that may eject your games from the store at any time and who certainly puts themselves first? A company that may attempt to sue you into oblivion using much deeper pockets? A company with no subsidy money (you cover dev out of YOUR own pocket)? A market that freaks if you want more than about $5 for the game and rips into other ways to monetize your efforts such as advertising and in-app? Another way to ask the question is: why would you want to develop a big game for Mac?
The other pastures are much, MUCH greener (and friendlier) than a DEV taking on all of the cost & risk of developing a big game for Apple tech, stripped of comparable pricing, advertising and in-app revenue (as too many of the fandom seem to want them) and at risk of being kicked out of the store and potentially relentlessly sued for years. The other markets are accustomed to paying much more for games and/or accepting of other ways to make some money for the efforts of creating the games.
Apple is serious about gaming "this time" when they allocate an AppleTV+ like budget to gaming for subsidies, buying a few major gaming studios, etc... like they are "being serious" about streaming video by allocating money and Human Resources to creating original visual content. They're serious when they shift from a "me" focus to a "we" (prosper together) focus, as in being a more attractive partner/channel for game distribution... and when they settle suits in a way that gives the developer of the games better opportunity to reap the rewards of THEIR work.
While games remain just recurring lip service every few years, Apple can "build it" all they want but gaming will NOT come. The game competitors have a thriving model worked out. Play ball or go home.
I like Apple tech just fine but when it comes to gaming, hope gets you nowhere. Get yourself a gaming PC or one of the consoles and enjoy the big games today. All those other players ARE serious about gaming, demonstrated in very tangible ways- measured in hard cash and human talent investments- that go beyond only lip service.
