What crash-free rate should an indie game aim for?

For most indie games, 99% of sessions crash-free is a reasonable baseline, and 99.5% or higher indicates a polished, stable game. Below about 98%, crashes are frequent enough to hurt reviews and retention. The right target varies by genre and platform, a long-session RPG needs higher stability than a quick-round mobile game, and consoles often demand more than PC.

What is the difference between crash-free sessions and crash-free users?

Crash-free sessions is the percentage of play sessions with no crash; crash-free users is the percentage of distinct players who never hit a crash. They can differ a lot, a few players crashing repeatedly tank the users metric while barely moving sessions. Always note which one you are quoting, since they tell different stories about your stability.

How do I improve my game's crash-free rate?

Fix the crashes that affect the most sessions, since those move the number the most. This requires crash reporting that groups crashes and ranks them by how many players each affects, so you can target the biggest offenders first. Knocking out your top crash visibly raises the rate, while chasing rare crashes barely moves it.

What Is a Good Crash-Free Rate for Indie Games?

Quick answer: A crash-free rate is the share of sessions or users who experience no crash in a given period, expressed as a percentage. A good target for most indie games is 99% or higher of sessions crash-free, with well-polished games reaching 99.5% and above. The right number depends on your genre, platform, and player tolerance.

"Crash-free rate" is one of the most useful single numbers for tracking a game's stability, and one of the most commonly misunderstood. Developers often ask what a "good" crash-free rate is as if there were one universal answer. There is a sensible range, but the right target depends on your game and platform. Understanding how the metric is calculated and what moves it is more useful than chasing a magic number.

How Crash-Free Rate Is Calculated

Crash-free rate is simply the percentage of a unit, sessions or users, that did not experience a crash over a period. If 1,000 play sessions occurred and 5 of them ended in a crash, your crash-free sessions rate is 99.5%. The same logic applies to users: the percentage of distinct players who never hit a crash. The two can differ significantly, which is why it matters which one you are quoting.

Because the metric is a percentage of a large denominator, small absolute numbers of crashes can still represent real player pain. 99% crash-free sessions sounds great until you realize it means one in a hundred sessions ends in a crash, which across a large player base is a lot of frustrated people. Always read the rate alongside the absolute crash count.

What Counts as a Good Rate

For most indie games, 99% crash-free sessions is a reasonable baseline and 99.5% or higher indicates a well-polished, stable game. Below about 98%, crashes are frequent enough that they materially hurt reviews and retention. But the target is genre- and platform-dependent: a fast-session mobile game and a long-session RPG have very different tolerances, because a crash that loses an hour of progress hurts far more than one between quick rounds.

Console and certification contexts often demand higher stability than PC. And early access or beta builds reasonably run lower while you stabilize. Rather than fixating on a universal number, set a target appropriate to your game and, more importantly, track the trend, a crash-free rate that is improving release over release matters more than hitting an arbitrary threshold.

Tracking and Improving Your Crash-Free Rate

To know your crash-free rate, you need to count both crashes and sessions, which means crash reporting plus session tracking. The rate then becomes a stability dashboard you can watch over time and compare across versions, did this update raise or lower stability? That trend is the real value of the metric.

Improving the rate is a matter of prioritization: the crashes hitting the most sessions move the number the most. Bugnet's occurrence grouping ranks crashes by how many players and sessions each affects, so you can see exactly which crashes are dragging your rate down and fix those first. Knock out the top crash and your crash-free rate visibly climbs, which is the most direct way to improve the metric.

Crash-free rate is a trend, not a trophy. Aim for 99%+, but care more about whether each release moves the number up.