9 Ways To Fix Steam Game Not Launching

Last updated on January 12th, 2025 at 03:44 pm

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Have you recently bought a game off of Steam, and as soon as you were going to launch it, the game suddenly crashed? This is a very common issue many gamers face when using Steam, but thankfully it can be fixed. In this tutorial, you will find 9 ways to fix your Steam game not launching.

Why Are My Steam Games Not Launching?

There are various reasons why your Steam games crash as soon as you try to open them:

Outdated Drivers
Corrupt Game Files
Download Cache Problems
Visual C++ Issues

Check For Steam Outages

Before proceeding to the following steps, check and see if any Steam outages are happening currently. To do this, visit the Downdetector website to see the latest reports on any issues with Steam servers whenever they occur.

9 Ways To Fix Steam Game Not Launching

Here are the best ways you can fix your Steam game that won’t open or launch.

Verify Game Integrity

The first way you can fix your Steam games not launching is by verifying the integrity of your game files:

First, open Steam, then go to Library.
Right-click the game that’s having issues, then select Properties.
On the left-side of the window, select Installed Files.
Click Verify integrity of game files.

Change Game Properties

If you are having issues with your Steam games not opening, changing your game properties might fix it:

Open Steam, right-click the game that won’t open, then select Properties.
Go to Local Files, then select Browse.
Locate the .exe file for the game, then SHIFT + right-click it.
Click Properties, then go to Compatibility.
Check Run this program as an administrator and Disable full-screen optimizations.
Click OK to save changes.

Launch In Windowed Mode

Setting your game to launch in windowed mode is another way you can fix your Steam game not launching. Keep in mind that not all games support this feature:

First, open Steam, right-click the game that won’t launch, then choose Properties.
Under General, go to Launch Options and type in this command:

-windowed

Close the window and see if your game is able to launch again.

Update Graphics Drivers

If you have outdated drivers, your Steam games can have issues launching. To fix this, you will need to update your drivers:

Press Win + X, then go to Task Manager.
Expand Display adapters, right-click your GPU, then select Update driver.
Click Search automatically for drivers to see if there are any new updates available.

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Repair C++ Redistributables

If the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables are corrupted, this can lead to your Steam games not opening. Here’s how to repair them:

First, press Win + S to open Search.
Type control panel, then select it from the search results.
Go to Programs and Features, and scroll down until you see Microsoft Visual C++.
Click each of the Visual C++ redistributables installed on your PC, and select Repair.
Once you are finished repairing all of the redistributables, restart your PC.

Clear Download Cache

Clearing your game cache can fix the issues that are causing your Steam games to not launch. You will need to log in to Steam again once your cache is cleared:

Launch Steam, then select the Steam icon in the top left corner of the window.
Go to Settings, then select Downloads.
Scroll down until you see Clear Download Cache.
Select Clear Cache.

Reinstall Steam Game

If you’re having issues launching your game, reinstalling the Steam game might help:

First, go to your Steam Library, then right-click the game that won’t launch.
Choose Manage, then go to Uninstall.
Once the game is uninstalled, select the game from your library and click Install.

Modifying Environment Variables

You can also change the Environment Variables settings to fix your Steam games not opening:

Press Win + R to open Run.
Type SystemPropertiesAdvanced, then press OK.
The System Properties Advanced will now open. Click Environment Variables.
Under System variables, select New.
The New System Variable window will pop up. For the Variable name, type the following below:

OPENSSL_ia32cap

Next, type this in for the Variable value:

~0x20000000

Click OK to close the window.

Clear Your CMOS Battery

Clearing your CMOS battery is a good way to fix your Steam games not launching. To learn more on how to do this, check out the article, “How to Clear CMOS On Your Laptop or Desktop”.