Dune Awakening is a major hit as new survival game hits almost 100k on Steam

It isn't a huge surprise that Dune Awakening has attracted so much attention. The Dune sci-fi universe, originating in Frank Herbert's novels and recently given new attention thanks to a pair of acclaimed movies, has always been compelling, regardless of medium. It's also proved a good fit for videogames, having inspired groundbreaking RTS games like Dune 2 and newer strategy projects like Dune: Spice Wars. Naturally, then, a sprawling MMO version of Dune, with survival design reminiscent of Valheim, No Man's Sky, or DayZ, wouldn't have a had time finding an audience. And that certainly seems to be the case with Dune Awakening, which doesn't officially launch until next week but has already attracted an enormous player base on Steam in 'Advanced Access.'

The decision to translate the Dune books and films into a massively multiplayer survival game seems to have been a smart one, given the success of Dune Awakening so far. Though it's currently only available to those who purchase its Deluxe or Ultimate Edition, which unlocks the game five days early, Awakening is already a hit. As might've been predicted by its current place as the most wishlisted survival game on Steam, there are already plenty of players eager enough to get started that they've paid extra for early access.

Dune Awakening reached a peak player count of 93,634 online users on Steam today, with 79,943 still active at the time of writing. Considering that the game hasn't even officially launched yet, these figures represent an impressive indication of its initial success.

Dune Awakening is available in Advanced Access now, with its full launch coming on Tuesday June 10. Wishlist it or find more details on Steam right here.

Otherwise, you can find more like Dune Awakening to play with our picks for the best MMOs and best open-world games on PC.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.