New survival MMO Dune Awakening continues to grow, becomes Steam bestseller

The first sign that Dune Awakening had something special going was at its head-start launch, where its active players managed to break six figures on Steam despite requiring a deluxe or ultimate edition purchase to get in. But a consistent audience that keeps coming back is the lifeblood of MMOs, so developer Funcom is naturally tremendously pleased that ten days on, and nearly a week after its full release to all, the Dune Awakening player count has just leapt up dramatically again, while also pushing to the top of Valve's best-selling chart in America and the United Kingdom.

Dune Awakening fuses the core concepts of survival games with large-scale servers, giving it a rich sense of community interaction. Like all new MMOs, then, having active players is important to fulfilling the experience Funcom has promised. While there is the potential to run on a private server if you're more of an isolationist, there's a magic to watching everyone scurry about looking for water in Dune Awakening, only to suddenly fall foul of the maw of a surprise sandworm attack.

Funcom says it has "been absolutely floored by the reception from players, press, and content creators," thanking the community and pointing to its impressive Steam review score, which currently sits at 86% positive from over 23,000 reviews. That rating looks even better when you consider that the launch, while largely stable, hasn't been flawless. Regular patches have caused near-daily disruptions to Dune Awakening servers as Funcom tackles periods of instability, and a client crash in the Deep Desert has forced it to disable some of the quicksand temporarily.

Nevertheless, people are clearly enjoying their time. On Saturday June 15, ten days after the head-start launch and five on from the full release, The Dune Awakening player count leapt up dramatically. With word spreading, the weekend flood carried it to a peak of 175,569 active users on Steam, an impressive jump of more than 23% over its previous high. That's a lot of people honing their Dune Awakening skills.

Head to Valve's Steam top sellers chart, meanwhile, and Dune Awakening has climbed up eight spots to sit atop the list of bestsellers by revenue on the United States chart. The numbers are even more impressive than that, however, as the ultimate edition sits at position eight, with the deluxe edition at spot 11. In the United Kingdom, the trio are placed at two, six, and eight respectively, with only the Steam Deck hardware earning more than the base game.

Signs continue to look promising for Funcom; hopefully it's able to keep building on this success and deliver something that Dune enthusiasts can enjoy for the long term. If you're on the hunt for those Dune Awakening Erythrite Crystals in order to make Cobalt Paste for your crafting recipes, you'll be in plenty of good company.

Take a look through our Dune Awakening class tier list to find the best trainers, and study our Dune Awakening base building guide for everything you need to know to get up and running. Just remember to always, always walk without rhythm.

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