Steam Store Down Minutes After Hollow Knight: Silksong Launch

The Steam Store is currently failing to load for many users following the long-awaited launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Instead of the storefront, the client is returning a “Something Went Wrong” page with error code E502 L3, as shown in the screenshot.

Early reports indicate the outage is largely confined to the Store and checkout pages. Libraries still open, friends/chat appear online, and already-owned games can be launched. Some users can reach their Downloads panel, but wishlists, search, and purchase flows are intermittently timing out.

The E502 errors typically point to Steam’s web back-end being overwhelmed—a scenario that often follows major releases or seasonal sales. Given Silksong’s immense interest and simultaneous global push, a traffic surge is the most likely culprit.

What you can try right now

• If you already bought the game, open Library → Downloads to verify the install without using the store page.

• Avoid repeated purchase attempts to prevent duplicate charges when the store recovers.

• Switching between client and browser, or mobile data vs. Wi-Fi, may not help if the back-end is saturated; the fix will come server-side.

Valve has not yet issued a statement. We’ll update when the store stabilizes and purchasing resumes normally.