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9 Ways to Fix Steam Game Won’t Launch After Clicking Play
These fixes are easy ways to get your Steam games running again
8 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Steam is an excellent platform for gaming, popular among worldwide users. However, many people reported that sometimes Steam game launches, but nothing happens when clicking Play.
This can be a big problem since you won’t be able to launch any games at all, but today we’re going to show you how to fix this issue.
You can encounter many Steam issues, and several users reported that they could notrun games on Steam.
Similarly, users also mentioned that sometimes Steam launches the game, but nothing happens,or the Steam game displays aRunningmessage, then stops.
So, check out the solutions below if nothing happens when you want to play games on Steam.
Why can’t I play my Steam games?
You need to be aware of the most popular reasons why today’s error might occur. Take a look at the list below and discover them:
As you can see, there are plenty of reasons for this issue, so follow the detailed methods described below to prevent and fix this issue once and for all.
What can I do if nothing happens when I click Play on Steam?
1. Check your antivirus
According to users, sometimes your antivirus can interfere with Steam, and that will cause this and many other problems.
Try disabling certain antivirus features, such as real-time scanning or folder protection, to check if your antivirus is the problem. You might have to disable your antivirus altogether if that doesn’t work.
Sometimes disabling antivirus doesn’t help. If that’s the case, you might have to remove your antivirus altogether.
If removing the antivirus solves the issue, this would be a perfect time to consider switching to a different antivirus.
Many efficient antiviruses can support your system for gaming purposes and protect against malware as well.
To discover the most suitable program for you, it is advised to pick from the best antivirus software for gaming computers carefully.
2. Start Steam as an administrator
If this method works, you’ll need to repeat it every time you want to play anything on Steam. However, you can set the app to always run with administrative privileges. To do that, follow the above steps.
After making this change, Steam will always start with administrative privileges, and the issue should be permanently resolved.
3. Change the download region
After making this change, restart Steam and try to rerun your game.
4. Ensure that Visual C++ Redistributables are installed
If you can’t launch a game on Steam, the issue may be related to the missing components.
Many games require Visual C++ Redistributables to run, and if a Steam game is preparing to launch, then nothing happens; it’s possible that you don’t have the necessary Visual C++ components installed.
There are several ways to install these missing components, but the easiest method is to check the game’s installation directory.
Look forvcredistdirectory and install all files from it. There should be two files available, one for x64 and one for the x86 version of Windows, and you need to install both.
After that, try to start the game again and check if everything works. Remember that you might have to do the same for other Steam games that are giving you this problem.
5. Verify the integrity of the game cache
Once the scan is completed, the game should be completely repaired, and the Steam game launches, then closes issue should be fixed.
6. End the Steam process and restart it
Once you end all Steam processes, relaunch Steam and check if your game won’t launch after clicking Play. Remember that this is just a workaround, so you might have to repeat it every time you encounter this issue.
8. Reinstall the problematic game
Once the game is removed, download it and check if the problem is still there.
To altogether remove the game, some users suggest removing the game folder from thesteamappsdirectory and all game-related directories from the Documents folder.
This might be a drastic solution, and you should use it only if the other steps don’t work for you.
However, if the Steam game won’t launch after clicking on Play, we have one more option you can try.
9. Reinstall Steam
Once you launch Steam, you should be able to start all your games after clicking Play without any issues. This is a drastic solution, and you should use it only if the previous solutions didn’t work for you.
Can I uninstall Steam without losing games?
If you uninstall Steam from the Apps and Features on your PC, it will remove everything that has to do with the app, including your games.
However, if you know you will be reinstalling the game soon, you can move the Steamapps folder from the Steam directory following the path below to another location:C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps
After you reinstall the game, you can now move the folder into the Steam folder.
What other Steam games related problems should I be aware of?
We hope that you managed to fix today’s problem using one of our solutions. For any additional questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment in the section below.
More about the topics:Steam games,windows 10 fix
Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology.
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.
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Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s specialized in Windows errors & software issues.
