Did Dune: Awakening Fail Players, or Did Players Fail Dune? The Achievement Data Tells Al

Dune Awakening presents an epic size sci-fi world filled with unique features whether you choose to admit it or not.

From the sandworm as an invincible dynamic environmental hazard to the spice blow in the deep desert's weekly resets, the game has distinct mechanics.

This world is tied to an action-packed multi-chapter storyline designed to reward progression and of course lead players into the mid and endgame.

However, there is a story here that hasn't been addressed. A tale of how modern gamers sometimes perceive not only the current state of the title, but

also the necessary progression required for a complete understanding of the game. What I want to discuss here are

game. What I want to discuss here are the hard cold numbers that show how players have actually interacted with Dune Awakening since it's launched. You

might be genuinely surprised what we are going to uncover.

Day after day, I receive negative comments about Dune Awakening on my videos. Whether the focus is on the

videos. Whether the focus is on the perceived deadness of the game, the lack of future, or simply lack of desire to ever return to it in general, this

negativity has led me to wonder. Did

Funcom do something wrong to steer the vast majority away from their game, or was the community simply not in touch with what the game actually had to offer? The answers came as I was

offer? The answers came as I was scrolling through my Steam achievements and stumbled upon some very startling realities. The achievement for an

realities. The achievement for an individual simply stepping into the deep desert for the first time is called the sea of sand. As soon as you render into

the a row of the deep desert, Steam acknowledges this feat. That by itself is basic. And what truly shocked me is

is basic. And what truly shocked me is not that you get the reward, but as of

today, December 3rd, 2026, only 32.7% of the total player base has ever entered into the deep desert. This is

absolutely mind-blowing for me. Like,

the largest complaint from the disenchanted community is that Dune Awakening's in-game is pure garbage. Yet

only a little more than a quarter of the total population that has ever bought this game has actually stepped foot into the in-game zone. Now, I know for a game

that has sold over a million copies at launch, 327,000 people, give or take, is a significant number, but digging deeper, I found an even more staggering

figure. At least [music] 40.7% of the

figure. At least [music] 40.7% of the players built an Ornithopter, which means a full 8% of those players who have the means to go to the deep

desert never actually decided to go and said the Haga Basin was as far as they wanted to venture. This is 80,000 people that have decided that they have the

ability to go there and just test it out to see what it is and just decided they never wanted to.

Now, as all gamers know, the trick to achieving game goals rests in one's ability to at least master the full potential of the mechanics needed to progress into the endgame. You can rush

to the end for better blueprints, or you can farm in-game materials to build bigger and better things, of course. But

regardless of the path, the more mastery you have in the fighting and survival mechanics, the less difficult it becomes to achieve these goals. However, as a

whole, the Doom community has fallen well short of these important [music] abilities by simply not reaching the obtainable peaks of each skill mastery

that is given to us. Turning to the Steam achievements once again, I was utterly shocked to find that only 11 to 14% of the community has actually

completed the quest lines for mastering the game's basic skills, depending on which skill it was. By itself, this isn't the end of the game, obviously.

But when a large portion of gamers complain that the game doesn't have enough activities to do, yet so very few actually complete what the game is

offering. I just begin to wonder exactly

offering. I just begin to wonder exactly what is going on here. And to add to that, less than 40% have ever [music] completed the opening story line and a

staggering 17% have went on to complete the second chapter of the story. The

numbers paint a truly desparing view of what has happened to this game. And

there's only a few things that I can really step back and pinpoint as the reason for why this has happened.

Now, of course, the evidence suggests that the largest share of the blame here falls on Funcom's design choices. The

most striking statistic is that the majority of complaints are about the endgame, yet over twothirds of the player base never actually wanted to reach it. This is a classic example of

reach it. This is a classic example of an expectation mismatch caused by core design decisions because the game is primarily a PvE survival in the starting

zone, but then very quickly forces players into a full loot competitive and toxic PVP environment in that deep desert for all in-game progression such

as highest tier schematics, major spice resources, or even the building materials for creating these things.

Also, the riskto-reward ratio for solo or casual players is just way too extreme because losing an orthopter or highle gear due to single successful

gank or even a bug is a devastating setback for the vast majority of people who are playing this game because that is hours upon hours of more PvE grinding

which is very tedious [music] for anybody to be able to rebuild the stuff to any degree that they have already worked up to. Now, and also as noted, over 40% have built a thopter, but not

all of those progressed. Building the

thopter unlocks greater mobility, but many players quit around this point as the game loop of resource collection, basic construction, and initial story simply just run out of steam before the

true MMO elements actually start beginning to kick in. Now, the data on skill mastery shows that players aren't engaging with the depth of the mechanics either, which suggests the game fails to

motivate them to actually get out there and complete these storylines and able to maximize their skills. Basically, if

mastering a skill like say swordmaster mindat doesn't feel tangibly powerful or necessary to progress, players just treat it as an optional busy work and decide that they don't want to get out

there and do it to begin with. Now, the

vast majority of players are not finishing these basic story chapters.

This points to a progression curve that is either too grindy, too confusing, or simply just not compelling enough to hold their attention for the dozens of hours required to reach the endgame's

threshold. And while Funcom is

threshold. And while Funcom is responsible for the design, there's a significant portion of the decline, which is inevitable for this genre to

begin with. Because many players treat

begin with. Because many players treat games like Dune Awakening, like Valheim or Rust, they play intensely for the first 50 to 100 hours to build a base, see the primary content, and then log

off until a major update comes back.

>> [snorts] >> The initial 1 million buyers, as estimated, has included many who were just curious about the IP itself in general. And almost all major games, the

general. And almost all major games, the percentage of players who finish the campaign or reach the final zone, is as always very surprisingly low. The 30 to

40% progression rate, which was cited, is often considered actually rather normal or even decent for an early access survival title, as 50 to 70% of

the buyers often just drop off after the first few hours or weeks. The issue is that the game wasn't designed for those 60 to 70% of players who dropped off

leading to the dead game perception, which I don't entirely agree with on a daily basis because I see heaps of people still in game playing [music] and still functioning and grinding out

stuff. So basically the most critical

stuff. So basically the most critical mistake here was by Funcom in developing an in-game that was majority of their players did not want to engage with

effectively stranding the other 67.3% of the player base in a perpetual midgame grind with no meaningful goal which is what has led people to believe that

there is no endgame.

Now, the solution lies in creating alternative pathways to progression that respect the varied play styles shown by the achievement data that we've recorded

and introduced in this video. Create

separate protected instances or sections of the deep desert with high tier resources, but with challenging unique PvE content like stronger, more unique

NPCs or megas, time defensed events that grant alternative paths to in-game schematics and materials, which they have actually started doing, which is a

positive and a growth potential that is going to make a lot of people happy when it comes down to it. Also, they need to make PvP opt in or try to territorial

control of specific housecontrolled areas rather than a universal openw world mandate that is literally just keeping people on the PvE side from

being able to, you know, achieve the same goals that the hardcore PvPers are able to get there. So, overall, I just want to say that I don't really believe

it's all Funcom's fault. I believe that it also has a little bit to do with the perception that we are seeing the game through these filtered statistical stats

that a lot of people try to go through measuring how good or how alive or how dead a game is by going and looking at Steam charts. A game doesn't need to

Steam charts. A game doesn't need to necessarily have 300,000 people playing at it consistently. Of course, if it does have that, that is a great thing for the game. However, what you start

seeing is that in my opinion, the vast majority of people just are going to drop off regardless of any good or negative features that are in that game.

Now, Funcom did destroy a lot of this game by its choices and decisions that it's made, and I am hoping that they are going to find a way to successfully fix

that in-game game loop for everybody to enjoy and being able to, you know, successfully achieve the goals that they're looking for. I am just hoping

that they are not too late to find that solution before most people do not want to come back into the game and play it.

What do you guys think? Do you believe that there is a chance or a future for Dune to continue on into the deep future? Or do you really think that no

future? Or do you really think that no matter what, this game is just going to slowly die off and never [music] bounce back? Let me know in the comments below.

back? Let me know in the comments below.

And as always, thanks for coming and have a great day.