How To Fix the PEAK Stuck on Authenticating Error
PEAK fixes.
PEAK is one of the most fun co-op releases of 2025 and a huge success for Landfall and Aggro Crab, selling over two million copies in just nine days. The developers have been consistent with updates, user feedback, and have confirmed that more content is on the way.
Since the game blew up and is primarily designed with multiplayer, there are bound to be some network and technical issues. If you’re constantly getting stuck on “authenticating” in PEAK, here are a few things you can try to fix that.
Update PEAK
This is a known issue in PEAK, and the developers initially suggested using a VPN to get around the error, especially if you are from Russia or Europe. However, the developers have since resolved the issue on their end, and PEAK should be connecting to the servers as normal.
Since this is a game with constant updates, I recommend putting the update priority in Steam to the highest. This way, PEAK will take priority over your other game updates, so you aren’t playing on an outdated version. Here is how you can do that in the Steam client:
- Open Steam and navigate to your library
- Here, right-click on PEAK and select Properties
- In the Updates tab, select “Immediately download updates” under Automatic Updates
This should fix the problem for most users, but the error might pop up again. In that case, you can try the following suggestions:
- Try the initial workaround suggested by the developers and use a VPN while you’re playing PEAK and set the region to something else.
- Ask your friend on Steam to invite you into their lobby.
Generic Troubleshooting
Apart from that, you can try the following generic network troubleshooting suggestions.
- Try a different connection if you’re stuck in a queue.
- Restart your modem or router.
- Reset your internet connection in Windows.
- Unplug your ethernet cable, restart your PC, and replug the cable.
- Flush Your DNS
- Run the Command Prompt as an administrator
- Enter the command: ipconfig /flushdns
- Restart your PC
These minor technical issues are expected for a smaller release like this. The developers clearly didn’t anticipate the game blowing up the way it did, and it’s pretty normal for the first few weeks to be unstable.
