Dune Awakening Player Decline Explained | PvP Vs PvE Problems And How To Fix The MMO?
Posted: Oct 31, 2025 Views: 50
Dune: Awakening is undoubtedly in trouble right now. Compared to its initial launch glory, player numbers are steadily declining, averaging only 11,000–12,000 concurrent players. Most servers are underpopulated. The once bustling and chaotic Deep Desert now feels empty, and trade routes are quiet. The world now feels lifeless.
This is a fatal problem for an MMO—no players. As a sandbox game built on tension and survival, it cannot function when the desert itself is lifeless. So what exactly happened to Dune: Awakening? This goes back to the initial problem: the conflict between PvP and PvE.

Why Are Players Leaving?
The key reason for the player exodus in Dune: Awakening is the huge disconnect between PvE and PvP content. In the first few dozen hours, players primarily spent time in Hagga Basin learning base building and resource gathering, which accounted for approximately 90% of their playtime.
However, once the endgame arrives, almost all players are left with only one option: to enter Deep Desert to find the highest-level Dune: Awakening items and equipment. This essentially forces all players who want to continue playing to enter PvP.
The frustration of PvE players stems from being harassed, ambushed, or having their content blocked by guilds when they simply want to progress and enjoy limited content. This frustration is entirely justified.
PvP players, on the other hand, are mostly motivated by challenge, the thrill of real combat, and fair competition, rather than simply causing trouble. They are equally frustrated by the current state of the game.
But the current game framework forces players into this conflict. When the mechanics encourage random encounters rather than meaningful ones, the tension quickly turns into toxicity.
What Do Players Really Need?
PvE Players
PvE players primarily feel they have no choice. While gathering, farming, or completing quests, they are ambushed by groups specifically hunting them, and they are often unprepared for combat. The best rewards and materials are locked in areas guaranteed to see PvP encounters, creating constant anxiety.
PvE players don't want absolute safety; they want meaningful progression without relying on the mercy of others. They need breathing room to focus on crafting and exploration, without fear of every outing becoming a potential ambush.
PvP Players
PvP players primarily feel that combat feels aimless. Dune: Awakening lacks a defined reward system for PvP players; combat is random, and even defeating any opponent doesn't provide much excitement, failing to satisfy either side.
PvP players crave skill-based gameplay, not cheap kills. They want contested areas, meaningful duels, and rewards based on strategy rather than simple ambushes or outnumbered attacks.
Official Solution
Shrinking The PvP Area
The developers made many changes to address this issue, their biggest initial adjustment being to reduce the PvP area by half. This allows PvP players to establish bases in the central PvE area of the map and safely access spice fields, rendering raiding mechanisms ineffective. This change has undoubtedly angered a large number of PvE players, leading to a mass exodus.
Instanced Loot
The official patch 1.2.10.0 added PvP Instanced Loots, meaning every player can obtain items from chests instead of having them snatched first. This is a positive step, effectively reducing the gap between players.
However, introducing this feature after the game population declines will cause S-tier loot locations that naturally attract PvP players to compete for to disappear, significantly reducing the already limited interest of PvP players.
How To Solve This?
Short-term Solution
Since the player population on each server is relatively small, Deep Desert areas could be connected to create a unified environment. This would allow players from different servers to coexist, trade, and fight without losing their progress.
This could revitalize Dune: Awakening, restarting the game world's economy and allowing players to trade items using their Dune: Awakening Solari.
Furthermore, this would rekindle the enthusiasm of PvP players, restoring a sense of danger to Deep Desert and bringing value back to the land.
For PvE players, a larger player base would create more opportunities for cooperation, alliances, and trade.
Long-term Solution
The developers could try dividing the game ecosystem into dedicated PvE servers and dedicated PvP servers, allowing players to choose based on their desired experience.
Players on PvE servers could focus on progress, crafting, and exploration without worrying about their progress being destroyed by PvP players popping up anywhere. This would provide a tense but non-punitive experience.
The developers could also make specific adjustments to the PvP servers, such as faster respawn times, higher rewards, and more realistic objectives. This would separate purposeful warfare from opportunistic hunting.
This approach can be combined with Deep Desert Instanced Loot, allowing multiple PvE servers to share one Deep Desert and multiple PvP servers to share another, ensuring each community has an active world. This isn't particularly complex for the developers, as they've successfully implemented it in their previous game, Conan Exiles.
In short, neither PvE nor PvP players are inherently bad. Both sides want a Dune: Awakening that rewards their time and effort. It's the system design that pushes both groups towards unwanted conflict without providing the structure or incentives to make these encounters meaningful. The real issues to address are the lack of clear objectives, poor reward balance, and the absence of a framework that makes conflict worthwhile.
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