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He most likely ghosted because ending things explicitly requires a conversation he did not want to have, not because of something that happened in the last exchange. 'Out of nowhere' is usually accurate from your side and not from his.
That distinction matters because it changes what you do next. If the cause were a single message, you would want to study it. If the cause was a decision he made quietly over days or weeks, studying the last message only gives you a reason to blame yourself for something that was not there.
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Interest normally fades before the messages do. He keeps replying out of politeness or habit for a while, which means the visible part of the conversation looks unchanged right up until it stops.
So the disappearance is sudden but the decision was not, and re-reading the last messages for the mistake usually finds nothing, because there was not one. Looking for it keeps the hurt fresh without teaching you anything.
There is also a reason it lands harder when things seemed to be going well. A good stretch of conversation, or a date that felt easy, builds a reasonable expectation of more. Silence after that does not just end the contact - it contradicts your read of the situation, and that contradiction is what keeps you replaying it.
He was talking to several people and picked one. He got back together with someone. He was never single. He enjoyed the attention more than he wanted to meet. He decided it was going somewhere he did not want and had no script for saying so.
All of these produce identical silence, which is exactly why the silence carries no information you can act on. You cannot tell them apart from the outside, so there is no point trying.
Notice that several of these were true before he ever matched with you. Someone who was not really single, or who wanted attention more than a relationship, would have disappeared on whoever happened to be in your place.
There is one case where a calm look at your own part is useful: when the same thing happens at the same stage several times in a row. One ghosting is noise. Three in a row after the second date, or three in a row right after you suggested meeting, is a pattern worth examining.
Even then, look for mechanics rather than flaws. Did the plans stay vague? Did the conversation move into heavy topics early, like past relationships or long-term plans, before there was enough rapport to carry them? Did you both stop asking questions? These are adjustable habits, not verdicts on who you are.
Not much about you - but two habits reduce how often it happens. Meet sooner, because long text threads let someone stay engaged without ever deciding anything. And notice one-sided effort early: if you are carrying the conversation, the fade has usually already started.
Meeting sooner does not mean rushing. It means that after a few days of easy back-and-forth, one of you suggests something specific - 'coffee near the park on Saturday morning?' - rather than letting the thread run for weeks. A specific plan forces a decision while interest is still high, and an answer either way is better than a slow fade.
One-sided effort is easy to spot once you look for it. If his replies have shrunk from paragraphs to a line, if he has stopped asking anything back, or if every plan starts with you, the drift has already begun. You do not have to chase it. Matching his effort, rather than raising yours, tells you quickly whether there is anything there.
You can. Once, briefly, without heat. Most people do not reply, and the ones who do rarely say anything more useful than that it was not about you. It is allowed if it helps you close it - just do not expect it to.
If you do send something, keep it short and leave no hook that demands an answer. A line like 'I enjoyed talking with you - sounds like the timing is off, so take care' closes it on your terms. Avoid long messages listing what you thought you had, or asking him to explain himself, because those tend to be sent at a low moment and reread with regret.
Give it a few days without checking his profile or reading back through the thread, because both keep the question open. Then treat it as finished, even if he resurfaces later - someone who reappears after weeks of silence with a casual 'hey' has usually not changed, only become bored or lonely again.
Keep your other conversations moving toward a real plan, and judge how dating is going over a few weeks rather than one disappearance. And if it hurts more than seems reasonable, that is normal. You were not wrong to be interested in someone who seemed interested back, and the silence says more about how he handles discomfort than about anything you did.