How To Fix Outriders Crashing On Steam

We’ve been getting a lot reports about the most recent Square Enix masterpiece, Outriders, crashing on Steam or PC. The crashes seem to be happening everywhere, ranging from the start-up screen, to an online matchmaking screen or when doing a side quest.

If you have game crashes on Outriders as well, check out the solutions in this guide to fix the issue.

Reasons why Outriders is crashing on your PC (Steam)

Outriders is by far, the biggest Steam release for Square Enix. But just as tens thousands of Steam players are playing it, many are also complaining of the game crashing at launch or once the game is underway.

Below are the possible reasons why Outriders may be crashing on Steam.

Random glitch.

For most people who purchased Outriders in Steam, the game does not crash at all although there’s also a markedly large number of people who reported random crashes. Steam crash may sometimes be caused by factors other than poor coding so if Outriders seems to be crashing on you without any clear pattern, it may be triggered by a random bug or glitch.

Unfortunately, there’s no direct way to know why such a random occurrence happens so all you can do is to ensure that the game is always updated.

Driver issues.

Game crashes may occur due to outdated drivers. Issues such as low FPS (frames per second), crashing, and slow performance may can sometimes be the direct result of using weak graphics cards or old GPU drivers. Graphics card makers NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel regularly release updates for their GPUs to ensure that their hardware can work well with new games.

If you haven’t checked or installed the latest drivers for a while, be sure to do so before you launch Outriders on your PC again.

PC does not meet minimum system requirements.

The most recent hit game from Square Enix, Outriders, can only run on a decent hardware. If Outriders keep crashing and you have the Steam version, be sure that your computer can run it by checking the system requirements before buying or installing it.

You can try to install the Outriders DEMO to see if it works well on your machine.

DirectX issues.

DirectX is a suite of APIs (application programming interfaces) that acts as a bridge between a game (application) and your graphics card. Without DirectX, games like Outriders will not be able to work with your GPU. At this time, the updated DirectX version is DX12 or DirectX 12 although Outriders is also designed to work with the older DirectX 11.

If you have an older PC and it’s DirectX version is not either DX11 or DX12, this may be the reason why Outriders is crashing on Steam.

Corrupted files.

A game may crash for other reasons, like when certain critical games become corrupted. File corruption in games can occur if a player interrupts a “saving” process by turning off the PC, or closing the game.

Outriders uses an “auto-save” feature that lets it save your progress on its own. If this auto-save instance is interrupted, it may result in that save file becoming corrupted.

Slow internet connection.

If you only experience a crash when you’re playing Outriders with someone over the internet, it’s possible that it may be due to a server problem, or an internet connection problem at home. Sometimes, a crash that occur in online games due to slow internet connection or a network error.

How to fix Outriders crashing on Steam?

If you’re looking for a way to resolve crashes in Outriders, the following solutions might help. Keep in mind that these fixes may not apply to everybody as there’s no single reason for all crashes. You still need to isolate the factors that cause game crashes in order to play them normally without the annoying crashing issues.

Fix #1: Restart.

The first thing that you want to try is to see if if the crash is being caused by a random bug. Glitches may occur due to the unique software environment of your PC. What causes the crash on your machine though may not be true in another player’s computer.

If closing Outriders won’t make a difference, try to restart Steam next.

Alternatively, you can just simply restart your PC to refresh it.

Fix #2: Check for the latest game updates.

Keeping the game updated is another simple way to keep bugs away. Once you’ve restarted your machine, be sure to check for updates before launching the game again.

With tons of bugs being reported for the game after its official April 2, 2021 release date, Square Enix will be releasing a series of improvements and updates to fix Outriders. All you have to do is to ensure that you check for updates from time to time.

Fix #3: Update your graphics card drivers.

Aside from updating the game, another important step that you must do in this case is to ensure that graphics card is running an updated driver.

Check out the links below on how to update the driver on your GPU:

Fix #4: Ensure your PC can handle the game.

This latest Square Enix game is released for all major gaming platforms but unlike the console versions, PC players must also ensure that their machine can run it properly.

If you have an older rig, it’s current hardware may not be compatible with this game. Check out the system requirements of Outriders Steam version and see if your PC meets the minimum.

Fix #5: Use DirectX 11 or 12.

If your machine is running an old Operating System, it may be using an incompatible DirectX version. Square Enix designed Outriders to run on either DirectX 11 or 12 only.

If you need the latest DirectX version, visit the official Microsoft DirectX website.

Fix #6: Run a speed test.

Outriders need to connect to game servers reliably in order to work properly. If your home internet is slow, or if it keeps disconnecting, this might result in a connection error.

To check, run a speed test on your computer to see if you have enough download and upload speed while gaming. You must have a minimum of 5 Mbps of download and upload in order to maintain a good gaming experience.

If you think that your internet connection is slow, or if it keeps on disconnecting, get help from your Internet Service Provider.

Fix #7: Check for corrupted saved game files.

You can verify the integrity of game files in this link to see if there are any corrupted data that causes Outriders to crash. This is a common solution for Steam games that are experiencing unexplained crashes or poor performance. You don’t have to be afraid of losing any progress as Steam will merely check or verify if the game client has all the necessary files to work properly. If not, then it will download those files from the internet automatically.

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