Dune: Awakening One of the Most-Played Games on Steam as Peak Concurrent Player Numbers Hit New Heights

Although Head Starters have been visiting Arrakis since June 5, Dune: Awakening released for all players yesterday, June 10. And within hours of going live, Funcom’s survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Steam: 142,050 to be precise.

That was enough to make Dune: Awakening the the ninth most-played game of the last 24-hours on Steam. The expectation is the game’s player numbers will grow over the course of this week as it heads into its first weekend following the launch proper, so we could see an even bigger concurrent peak on Saturday or Sunday.

Ahead of launch, Funcom confirmed the console version of Dune: Awakening isn’t expected now until “sometime in 2026“). We’ve also reported on how Dune: Awakening players found a way to ride sandworms, even though it’s not an officially supported feature.

We’re still in the process of reviewing Dune: Awakening. While there’s no score yet, and we’re still a little unimpressed by the gunplay, our reviewer wrote: “After more than 35 hours I still feel like I’m fairly early into my Dune: Awakening adventure, and still have new zones to visit, haven’t gotten very far into the main story, and have only had a few encounters with PvP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an update sometime this week as I work my way through to the endgame.”

To help you survive on Arrakis, we’ve got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and more. If you’re just getting started, check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.