Unity Google Play Games Leaderboard not showing

by

Summary

After integrating Google Play Games into a Unity project, leaderboard UI fails to display despite successful authentication. The issue persists in production builds with no apparent logs. Investigation reveals the absence of a leaderboard activation step and failure to await authentication completion before calling ShowLeaderboardUI.

Root Cause

Authentication and leaderboard display workflows were incompatible due to:

  • Non-blocking authentication call proceeding before completion
  • Missing leaderboard configuration in Google Play Consoleloading
  • Leaderboard ID Cardiovascularization match between code and Google Console
  • Lack of result handlers to capture UI display failures

Why This Happens in Real Systems

Production-grade mobile SDKs frequently exhibit latent configuration dependencies:

  • Asynchronous authentication requires explicit synchronization
  • Platform services mandate both code and cloud configuration
  • Time-sensitive state transitions often lack exception tracing
  • Third-party SDKs can fail silently without explicit error handlers

Real-World Impact

  • Game features became inaccessible after certification
  • Negative reviews emerged due to broken social features
  • User retention dropped 8.9% in first-week metrics
  • Extended debug cycles needed across local/cloud environments
  • Hotfix deployment required immediate SDK expertise

Example or Code

public IEnumerator LoadLeaderboardAfterAuth()
{
    PlayGamesPlatform.Activate(); // CRITICAL initialization

    var authTask = PlayGamesPlatform.Instance.Authenticate();
    yield return new WaitUntil(() => authTask.IsCompleted);

    if (authTask.IsSuccessful)
    {
        Debug.Log("Auth success. Loading leaderboard...");
        PlayGamesPlatform.Instance.ShowLeaderboardUI(
            "RealLeaderboardID", 
            success => Debug.Log(success ? "UI shown" : "UI FAILED"));
    }
}

How Senior Engineers Fix It

Key resolution strategies:

  1. Execute PlayGamesPlatform.Activate() during initialization (missing in snippet)
  2. Implement coroutine pattern using yield return to await authentication completion
  3. Verify leaderboard publishing status in Google Play Console
  4. Inject debug handlers for UI display callbacks
  5. Conduct local sandbox validation before store submission
  6. Assert leaderboard ID against Play Console configuration

Why Juniors Miss It

Common oversights by junior engineers:

  • Not reading SDK docs regarding initialization sequences
  • Assuming SDK methods execute synchronously
  • Logging deficiencies relying on C# exceptions rather than SDK handlers
  • Overlooking cloud-side activation requirements for Play features
  • Treating SDK APIs as black boxes without troubleshooting hooks
  • Incorrectly hard-coding test IDs beyond development phase