On June 5th, Dune: Awakening launched on Steam. The survival game debuted at number 1 on the Steam top-selling list, even surpassing Elden Ring: Nightreign. However, some players couldn’t play the game at launch.
How is Dune: Awakening being received? Dune: Awakening has just launched in Early Access and directly dominates the top seller charts on Steam. It stands ahead of Counter-Strike 2 and Elden Ring: Nightreign, which also had a great many players at release.
However, Dune: Awakening has not yet surpassed the release peak of Elden Ring: Nightreign. There are good reasons for this: on one hand, the Dune game is currently still in Early Access, so those who didn’t purchase any of the special editions must wait for the launch.
On the other hand, there were issues with the server capacities of Dune: Awakening at launch. You can read about this in this news.
Overloaded servers and review bombing
Why couldn’t some players play? Firstly, buyers of the standard version currently cannot start the game. Secondly, there seemed to be issues for all players who paid for Early Access in terms of connecting to a server:
In a now-closed Reddit post, players shared their launch issues. The most upvoted comment expresses frustration about the lack of server space: Not having enough space on the servers for a strictly limited release looks really bad
(via Reddit). Reddit user PugnansFidicen agrees in a comment: Did they really run out of server space for preorder/Deluxe Edition buyers?
However, during the night, Funcom reportedly opened new servers according to commenter Barnhard (via Reddit). This capacity issue seems to have been resolved at least for the moment. According to SteamDB, the peak number of concurrent players reached 93,634 in Dune: Awakening at 9 PM our time. The survival MMO launched with 79,410 concurrent players.
The quick response is also reflected in the reviews on Steam: while Dune: Awakening initially started “mostly negative,” it now looks significantly brighter.
Praise for building and server issues – Dune: Awakening on Steam
How do Steam players currently find Dune: Awakening? The reviews for Dune: Awakening have improved. The game currently stands at Very Positive
on Steam with over 3,300 reviews (as of 1:30 PM).
Players have given plenty of praise, including for the good implementation of the Dune setting. Additionally, it is often mentioned that the survival elements are successful. Base building is also praised, and positive comparisons to Conan Exiles are frequently made.
However, there is still negative feedback. The partially fixed server issues and longer wait times until login are particularly highlighted. Gameplay-wise, the combat system feels clunky. Solo players struggle with wait times for resource respawns.
The official release date of the game for standard edition buyers is June 10, 2025. Until then, the developers have time to optimize server capacities and process initial feedback. If you want to start in the game this weekend or from Tuesday, we actually have all the important info in 2 minutes for you to prepare.
