Red dead redemption 2 pc crashing on startup

The game simply crashes to desktop immediately upon launching, regardless of whether you start the single-player or Red Dead Online. Assuming everything is in order, and you have the latest drivers installed, the culprit could be your anti-virus software.

red dead redemption 2 pc crashing on startup

Players have had luck with either disabling their anti-virus app completely, or adding an exclusion for the game’s exe. If you don’t want to disable your anti-virus, you can add the entire folder where Red Dead Redemption 2 is installed to its list of exclusions.

Run RDR2 as an Administrator

Sometimes you encounter Red Dead Redemption 2 crashing on PC due to the lack of administrative permission to access your game files. In this case, you need to run the game as an administrator to fix the problem. Besides, you can also modify some settings here to get better gaming experience.

Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and navigate to the location where the game is installed.

Step 2: Right-click the executable file of the game and select Properties.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, switch to Compatibility tab. Then check Disable fullscreen optimizations and Run this program as an administrator.

Step 4: Click Change high DPI settings. Under High DPI scaling override section, check Override high DPI scaling behavior and select Application. Then click OK to save the changes and go back to Properties window.

Step 5: Click Apply and OK.

Then you can run the game again to test the RDR2 crashing PC.

Verify the Game Files

Another reason for Red Dead Redemption 2 PC crash on startup is that the game files are missing or corrupted. To fix the problem, you can verify the integrity of game files in the game platform you use.

If you have Steam installed on your PC, you can follow the steps below to verify the integrity of game files.

Step 1: Restart your computer and launch Steam.

Step 2: Click LIBRARY to view your game list. Then right-click Red Dead Redemption 2 and select Properties.

Step 3: Select LOCAL FILES tab and click VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES

For Rockstar

Restart your computer and open Rockstar Games Launcher
Go to the Settings
Click My installed games tab
Select Red Dead Redemption 2
Click the Verify Integrity button

For Epic Games

Restart your computer and open Epic Games launcher
Go to the Library
Find the Red Dead Redemption 2 in the list.
Click the cog icon to the right of Red Dead Redemption 2
Click Verify

Disable the antivirus software temporarily

Since Red Dead Redemption 2 consumes a lot of memory and CPU usage when it’s running, many third-party antivirus applications may regard it as a potential threat and cause RDR 2 crashing issues.

If that’s the cause of your problem, you can just disable your antivirus app temporarily when playing RDR 2 or uninstall it completely. Alternatively, you can add the entire folder where Red Dead Redemption 2 is installed to its list of exclusions.