Crusader Kings 3 – Crash on launch – How to fix

Crusader Kings 3 crash on launch fix – Players are constantly facing crashes on launch in Crusader Kings 3. Is there a way to fix this issue? Lets find out.

Crusader Kings 3 – Crash on launch – How to fix

Performance issues are very common in AAA games these days. Especially the big AAA titles. I don’t think I have seen a big title so far that got released without any bugs or performance related problems this year.

Some players are reporting that they are experiencing crashes with an error message that says “Failed to create render backend” whenever they are trying to launch Crusader Kings 3, on the forums. While for some the game won’t even start. While we wait for the developers to release a patch there are few steps that you can try to fix the issues.

The developers are already aware about this issue and they themselves have recommended few fixes. Here they are.

How to fix the crash on launch issue

The fixes and pretty straight forward and wouldn’t require you to do anything complex.

An user called Rivve posted about this issue on the forums. This is what one of the developers had to say regarding this.

Hello Rivve,

Thanks for submitting your issue.

Could you please try the following and let me know if it resolves the issue?

  • Verify integrity of your game files on Steam.
  • Update your drivers, and make sure it’s the latest version
  • Update your Windows OS. and make sure it’s the latest version

Another user confirmed that updating his AMD Radeon drivers 20.8.2 to 20.8.3 beta drivers fixed the issue.

One more user managed to fix the crashes by just turning off his anti-virus. So if you are running a third-party antivitus then try turning it off then launch the game.

If you are using Windows Defender instead of a third-party AV then there is no way to turn if off. But you can add Crusader Kings 3 on the exceptions list of Windows Defender:

  • Go to Windows 10 settings
  • Click on Update & Security
  • Select Windows Security from the left sidebar
  • Click on Virus & threat protection
  • Under Virus & threat protection click on Manage settings
  • Under Exclusions click on Add or remove exclusions
  • Click on Add an exclusion
  • Select File
  • Select the .exe or executable file of Crusader Kings 3
  • Restart your PC

Here is the link to the original post.


If these don’t work for you then you can submit a ticket to the support or you can post your issue on the official Crusader Kings 3 Forums.


If you think this guide had helped you then let us know in the comment section below. Also, If you have found a fix that is guaranteed to work then also you can comment below. We will put it on this article. Good luck!


That’s all folks!

Last Updated on September 1, 2020

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