Dune: Awakening isn't even officially out yet and it already has almost 100,000 players

Survival MMO Dune: Awakening isn't even really out, officially: we're now in the five day advanced access period (everyone calls it the "head start") where only players who have purchased the $70 deluxe edition or the $90 ultimate edition can play.

That hasn't stopped the desert planet of Arrakis from getting a ton of new citizens. According to SteamDB, just a few hours into the head start launch, Dune: Awakening already has nearly 100,000 players building bases, riding speeders, clambering up cliffs, and dodging sandworms.

That's a spicy start, especially since there's still the weekend to come, and after that, oh yeah: the actual Dune: Awakening launch on Tuesday, June 10. That's when players who bought the $50 base edition of the game will get to play, and I assume that's where most of Dune's players will come from.

What kind of player numbers will Dune: Awakening eventually climb to? I won't speculate because I almost always guess wrong when it comes to these things, but it sure is looking like a strong beginning.

Which doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing. There have already been a few little day 1 hiccups of the sort we're pretty familiar with: players saying their game is crashing or their performance isn't great, and of course there's already been a few server issues. I had the same server problem a lot of players did when I launched it: the server browser showed zero servers, but Funcom quickly announced a fix for that on its Discord.

That's reflected in the Steam review score which at the moment is "Mixed," though not long ago it was "Mostly Negative." A lot of that is because some players who can't connect or have crashes immediately go to leave a negative review, while players with no issues tend to, y'know, keep playing instead of writing.

We'll see how Dune: Awakening does over the next few days and into next week when the official launch happens. Maybe I'll see you on the dunes? If so, watch your step: those sandworms aren't kidding around.