'The unimaginable has happened'—Dune: Awakening's player count drops below Funcom's other survival game released eight years ago, as engagement with Arrakis dries up

(Image credit: Funcom)

Things aren't looking so hot for Funcom's sci-fi desert survival MMO Dune: Awakening. After the strongest launch in the Norwegian studio's history, Funcom announced layoffs at the start of October, citing a shift from "development to long-term operation" as well as an upcoming console launch as the reasons for restructuring.

But there may be another reason behind those layoffs, namely that the player count for Dune: Awakening is dwindling. In fact, for the first time since Dune: Awakening launched, the number of players recently dropped below that of Funcom's other survival MMO, Conan Exiles, which released way back in 2018.

The shift was spotted by Reddit user m3d1t8 (via GamesRadar), who posted a screenshot showing that, at the time it was taken, 7,458 players were exploring Arrakis, while 7,706 players were enjoying Conan Exiles. "The unbelievable has happened and Dune now has fewer active players than Conan," m3d1t8 marvelled, adding. "I remember two months ago someone foreseeing that Dune would dip below Conan and thinking no wayyyy. I expected player numbers to settle around 20k."

At the time of writing, there was an even bigger gap between the two games, with 4,562 players in Awakening, and 5,685 players in Exiles. Exiles also enjoyed a higher 24-hour peak than Awakening on Sunday, reaching 10,899 players while Awakening topped out at 10,593. This is especially remarkable considering Awakening has an all-time peak that's greater than Exiles by almost fourfold, with 189,333 players arriving on Arrakis at launch while Exiles has only ever seen a max of 53,402.

Dune: Awakening — Official Launch Trailer - YouTube

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There is one big caveat, however, which is that Conan Exiles is currently on a humongous discount, available for 80% on Steam off until later today. That's likely given Exiles a bump it otherwise wouldn't have had.

Nonetheless, for Dune: Awakening to have lost more than 97% of its player base since June seems…bad? While many games experience player fall-off in the wake of launch, Awakening is supposed to be an MMO, and thus I'd expect its player-count to be slightly healthier five months out from release.

Awakening's recent Steam reviews—which are currently sitting at "Mixed"—hint at a potential cause. Ironically, it's that Awakening is a high-maintenance MMO, with player-bases requiring frequent upkeep that many players find bothersome. "The reality of the issue is the base resetting after a few weeks of inactivity. That means you lose everything. You must relogin and babysit your things to make sure they have power and your shields don't go down constantly," says user UNTFCE. Rapier Kamigawa summarises the problem: "The game does not respect your time, at all. It expects you to play it constantly and if you have to step away at all it will punish you," they observe.

Funcom recently reduced Awakening's unforgiving nature slightly, with its latest patch adding a vehicle recovery system that backs up player transports, allowing them to be retrieved if lost during storms or into the bellies of sandworms. But it still required players to pay an insurance fee, while the retrieved vehicle would be less durable than before. But it seems Funcom may need to further soften the experience to bring the bulk of players back to Arrakis.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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