Funcom is launching yet another free trial for Dune: Awakening, and this time, instead of a free weekend, it's a free trial week you could be spending on Arrakis in Funcom's latest open-world survival game. Alongside the free trial, the studio also confirmed that anyone who hasn't jumped into Dune: Awakening yet will be able to grab it for 25% off starting today until December 1, 2025.
It's the latest free trial promotion since the last one, which aligned with the first major DLC release for Dune: Awakening, Lost Harvest. That trial was only a weekend long and limited the server choices players had when jumping in. This trial period is both longer and lets players choose from any server in any world they want, and just like the last free trial, all of your progress in the trial will carry over to the full game, should you decide to pick it up. Though it's not exactly longer in the amount of time you get in-game. You still only get 10 hours of playtime, but you have a week to reach that limit.
Last time Funcom held a free trial, it led to a strong spike in players as it went from a little over 20K concurrent players to over 44K from one weekend to the next, per SteamDB. Since then, however, player count has dropped to all-time lows, with concurrent player count in the month of November barely able to hit 10K players.
Funcom is hoping this new free trial will lead to another spike and potentially contribute to more forward momentum that gets the game in a better place when it comes to concurrent player count, though it could, of course, just lead to another spike followed by dwindling numbers.
Dwindling concurrent player counts in its new flagship title isn't the only issue Funcom is currently facing, as the studio announced layoffs at the beginning of October, despite it calling out Dune: Awakening as "the biggest release we've had in our 32-year-long history of making great games."
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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