Riot Games Client Status | Riot Launcher Down

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If the client says the game is running but you don’t see it, Riot Vanguard (the anti-cheat) might be stalled. Look for the red Vanguard icon in your Windows system tray (bottom right).

The Riot servers and official status pages are showing all systems as operational right now, but you aren’t the only one having trouble today.

There are isolated user reports popping up (specifically on Reddit over the last few hours) about the Riot Client getting stuck on a login loop or showing the game as “Playing” without actually launching. Because there isn’t a widespread server outage, the problem is likely a desynced session or a hung background process on your machine.

How to Fix it

Here is how to brute-force the client back into working order:

1. Nuke the Background Processes

The most common cause for the client hanging or not opening is a ghost process that didn’t shut down correctly.

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
• Look for RiotClientServices.exe, LeagueClient.exe, or VALORANT.exe.
• Right-click and select End Task on all of them.
• Relaunch the Riot Client as an Administrator.

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2. Fix the “Playing” but Not Launching Bug

If the client says the game is running but you don’t see it, Riot Vanguard (the anti-cheat) might be stalled.

• Look for the red Vanguard icon in your Windows system tray (bottom right).
• Right-click it and select Exit Vanguard.
• Note: You will likely have to restart your PC after doing this before the game will let you queue up again.

3. Clear a Busted Login Session

If you are stuck in an infinite loading spinner when trying to log in, your client session is failing to authenticate with the active server.

• Close the client completely.
• Open your Command Prompt as Administrator, type ipconfig /flushdns, and hit Enter.
• Try logging in again.

If none of these work and the servers truly are starting to buckle, it usually takes Riot about 30 to 45 minutes to officially update their status page with an “Incident” warning.