Dune Awakening hits 142,000 concurrent players during full launch, smashing past record

Dune Awakening has soared past 142,000 concurrent players on Steam following its full public release.

According to SteamDB, the game quickly surpassed the peak established during the five day head start for those who bought the Deluxe or Ultimate edition. Within an hour of the full launch, it blew past 113,000 players.

So what can we infer from seeing Dune Awakening pull this off? Well, a growth of roughly 40 percent in peak players (on a Tuesday no less) indicates a sizable number of players were waiting in the wings for the cheaper version of the game. It's still possible that the game could hit another peak too this weekend, following the trend established by the early launch.

It'll be interesting to see to what degree the end game Landsraad and deep desert map can retain players, especially those who may have grabbed it for a romp with friends or a more single player, solitary experience. When you get to the end game, Dune Awakening does a baton pass from a survival game core to more of an MMO server-wide PvP and politics experience. How many of these initial players stick around for this bit, remains a big question.

To celebrate the full launch yesterday, it looks as though the Funcom team were enjoying mini cupcakes at the office, as shown off on social media by one Tascha Röösli on Twitter. Launching a video game, especially a big online one like Dune Awakening, is a big task. Why not celebrate a little?

Dune Awakening had previously proved so popular as to dethrone Elden RIng Nightreign from its perch atop of the Steam top sellers page just before its initial release on the 5th June.

If you're looking to jump into the game, why not read Eurogamer's Dune Awakening preview - it's "the perfect blend of survival, MMORPG, and house envy".