In a year filled with exciting video game releases and updates, fans have been treated to another much-hyped title from Funcom. Dune: Awakening, the Norwegian video game developer's latest offering, was globally launched on June 10 for PC players and has been very well-received so far.
Readers must note that those who pre-ordered and purchased the game's deluxe edition got a "head start" launch of the game on June 5. The publisher, known to specialize in online games, did so to get an entire weekend's head start before the official launch a few days later, and it had quite an effect on livestreaming services.
Since its head start release on June 5, Dune: Awakening has accrued almost 7.7 million Hours Watched (HW). This put it among Twitch's ten most watched games for last week, i.e., June 4 to 10, with its 198,158 Peak Viewers (PV) also ensuring it made it to the most popular titles list for the same period.
As a result, Dune: Awakening outperformed more renowned titles like Minecraft and Dota 2 in terms of peak live viewers. It also beat other recent releases like Elden Ring: Nightreign and MindsEye, although one other new launch, Mario Kart World, attracted a larger online audience during the same timeframe.
Most watched and popular games on Twitch over the past week
This also means that the action-adventure title emerged among the highest-selling games on Steam and was the number one entry for titles that are not free-to-play. It also hit a not-so-insignificant peak player count of 142,050 soon after its global release, as more and more gamers jumped in to see what the hype was all about.
Many top streamers have also been involved with the title since its "head start launch," playing a big part in making it a livestreaming sensation. The likes of Michael "shroud" Grzesiek, Jason "PirateSoftware" Hall, and Ben "CohhCarnage" Cassell have all invested dozens of hours exploring the world of Arrakis and the various possibilities life on the desert planet brings.
This list of content creators also reflects the Dune franchise's higher demand in the Western world, where it continues to be a hot topic of discussion. A majority of the most-watched languages for the game on Twitch come from this part of the world, led by English and followed by other major market representatives like German, Russian, and French.
What is Dune: Awakening, and how did it become a livestreaming hit?
Dune: Awakening is a survival MMO with a massive open world that will take players across the deserts of Arrakis, but with a slight twist. They will crash land on the barren planet, but things are not the same as in the books or movies.
Instead, this is an alternative timeline where the protagonist Paul Atreides was never born, meaning the many major events from the source never took place. Instead, the Harkonnens and Atreides are locked in an ongoing civil war for control of the planet, and the Fremen have paid the price for this battle, vanishing entirely from their cherished world.
Players are almost like vampires (just that in this case, water replaces blood as it is the scarcest mineral on Arrakis), scavenging prey in a desert, just looking to survive, even if it means killing NPCs and maybe even other gamers.
One of the main reasons for this livestreaming success is Dune: Awakening's great crafting mechanism. Most players, even those unfamiliar with the lore of the franchise and its original source, have enjoyed creating all the cool stuff available from the books and movies.
Be it Holtzman shields, Hunter-seeker drones, or stillsuits, those just starting out won't have that much trouble crafting these to get their survival bids going. And don't worry, the other amazing items like ornithopters and spice harvesters are also available, just that players will need to be much deeper into the game to be able to create.
There's even a massive PvP area called the Deep Desert where players confident enough in their journey can challenge each other. This is, after all, all part of the grand plan to control the desert and its universe-altering "spice," which, true to the franchise, involves a lot of political gamesmanship.
If there's one gripe within the global gaming community, it is that Dune: Awakening is currently only available on PC. However, there is light at the end of that tunnel, as Funcom confirmed in a press release for the June 10 launch that it will be out on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S "sometime in 2026."
Some players also encountered long queue times and client stability issues, something most new multiplayer releases experience, but Funcom has fixed most of these problems. The company added in its press release that more servers would be added for the full launch, which would include working to ensure player distribution between servers was evenly balanced.
Within just a week of its availability to the masses, Dune: Awakening has become a hot topic in the community. With reviews from users coming under the "Very Positive" scale on Steam and player/viewership counts that are not to be scoffed at, it will be interesting to see where the game finishes when looking at the most successful 2025 launches come the end of the year.
