Why does my game crash when loading a level?

Usually one of three causes: a missing or broken asset the level references, a memory spike as the new level loads on top of the old one (an out-of-memory crash, especially on constrained devices), or stale references from the previous scene being used after it unloaded. The stack trace, and whether it clusters on low-memory devices, usually identifies which.

Why does my game only crash loading one specific level?

That points at that level's content rather than the loading process, most likely a bad, missing, or corrupt asset it references, or a broken reference specific to that level. A crash that happens loading various levels instead points at the loading process itself (a memory spike or teardown bug). The stack trace distinguishes them.

Why does my game crash loading levels only on some devices?

That pattern points at a memory spike during the transition: loading the new level before fully unloading the old one needs more memory than constrained (low-memory) devices have, so they crash where higher-memory machines don't. The fix is to free the old level's memory before or as the new one loads, and reduce peak memory on those platforms.

Why Does My Game Crash on Level Load?

Quick answer: Your game crashes on level load because of something about that load or the previous scene's teardown: a missing, corrupt, or unloadable asset; a memory spike as the new level loads on top of the old one (an out-of-memory crash, especially on constrained devices); or dangling references to objects from the old scene that get used during the transition. The stack trace usually distinguishes which.

A crash when loading a level or transitioning scenes is well-localized: it happens during a specific, bounded operation, so the cause is almost always something about that load or the teardown of the previous scene. That makes it more diagnosable than a random crash, the trace and the pattern point at the cause.

The Usual Causes

Level loading does several risky things at once. A missing or broken asset: the level references something not in the build, corrupt, or failing to load, and the load crashes. A memory spike: loading a new level while the old one isn't fully unloaded can briefly need more memory than is available, causing an out-of-memory crash during the transition, especially on memory-constrained devices. And dangling references: code holding references to objects from the old scene that get destroyed on unload, then used during the transition, causing null/invalid access.

The pattern narrows it: a crash that always happens loading the same specific level points at that level's content (a bad asset, a reference); a crash that happens loading various levels points at the loading process itself (memory, teardown). And if it clusters on low-memory devices, it's the memory spike.

How to Tell Which Cause

The stack trace usually distinguishes them clearly: a trace in asset/deserialization code points at a bad asset; an out-of-memory crash points at the memory spike; a null/invalid reference in transition code points at dangling references. The device context matters too, level-load crashes clustering on low-memory devices indicate the memory spike.

Bugnet captures the stack trace, device context (including memory), and build version with each crash and groups them by signature, so level-load crashes cluster and you can see whether they share a specific level, a memory profile, or a code path, and whether they concentrate on certain hardware. That tells you whether it's a content bug (everyone loading that level) or a resource bug (only constrained devices).

What to Do About It

For a bad asset, verify it's in the build and valid and handle a failed load gracefully. For the memory spike, fully unload the old level before loading the new one so both aren't held in memory at once, and reduce peak memory on constrained platforms. For dangling references, don't retain and use references to objects from a scene after it unloads.

See our guide on fixing a game that crashes on level load for the steps. Because these crashes often hit many players at the same progression point, identifying the cause from the trace and fixing it removes a repeated, frustrating source of lost progress.

A level-load crash is localized to that load or the old scene's teardown, a bad asset, a memory spike, or a dangling reference. The trace and device context tell you which.