The ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error is easily one of the most annoying issues that you can encounter when trying to play the shooter. While players have reported encountering this error occasionally in the past, a recent Valorant update has resulted in a surge of users facing this issue when trying to launch the game.
As you can guess from the error code, the ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error prevents players from launching Valorant or getting into matchmaking.
While the ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error can be caused by a number of different reasons, the solution to this problem is generally pretty simple.
How To Fix ‘Valorant Couldn’t Start’ Error
The primary causes behind the ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error include running the game as an administrator and outdated drivers, both of which can be fixed swiftly.
Let’s take a look at how you can fix the ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error in just a few seconds.
Disable Administrator Mode
- First, head over to your Riot Games folder and look for a file named ‘Valorant-Win64-Shipping.exe’. By default, it can be found in ‘C:\Riot Games\VALORANT\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64’.
- Right-click on the file and go to ‘Properties’.
- Go to the ‘Compatibility’ tab and uncheck ‘Run this program as an administrator’.
- Hit ‘Apply’ and relaunch the game.
Restart Your PC
A simple PC restart is often enough to solve the ‘Valorant couldn’t start’ error. If disabling admin rights for Valorant doesn’t fix this issue, restarting should be your next step.
Update Your Drivers
Check for any available Windows updates and GPU driver updates. If updates are pending, download them right away and restart your PC before launching Valorant.
Reinstall Valorant
If everything else fails, your best bet is to reinstall Valorant. A fresh install of Valorant should fix this issue.
