Funcom Launches New Free Trial Week for Dune Awakening Alongside 25 Percent Discount

Funcom has launched a new free trial week for Dune Awakening, giving players another chance to explore Arrakis in the studio’s ambitious open world survival title. This new promotional period offers a full week for players to activate up to 10 hours of playtime, running from today until December 1, 2025. Funcom has also confirmed a 25 percent discount on all editions of the game during this same period.

This campaign follows the previous trial that arrived with the release of Lost Harvest, the first major expansion for the game. That event lasted only a weekend and limited players to specific servers. The new trial removes those restrictions and allows players to join any server in any available world. Progress made during the trial will carry over to the full game if players decide to purchase it.

The last free trial resulted in a sharp boost to player activity. According to SteamDB, Dune Awakening jumped from slightly above twenty thousand concurrent players to more than forty four thousand in a single weekend. However, the increase did not last long, and the game has since dropped to its lowest engagement levels to date. During November, concurrent player counts struggled to reach even ten thousand.

Funcom hopes that this new extended format will help revive interest and create stronger long term momentum. It remains to be seen whether the longer activation window combined with a capped playtime will produce sustained engagement or simply another temporary spike.

This push arrives during a challenging period for the studio. Earlier in October, Funcom confirmed internal layoffs despite publicly describing Dune Awakening as the largest release in its thirty two year history. The performance of the game in the coming months will play an important role in shaping the next phase of Funcom’s post launch plans.

Do you think the new free trial can help rebuild the player base, or will it result in another short lived surge in activity? Share your thoughts in the comments.