At the start, the peak online presence of Dune: Awakening exceeded 189 thousand players, but recently it has been within 10 thousand (after the February update, it grew to 18 thousand).
However, the developers from Funcom are quite calm about what is happening. Recently, during a conversation with FRVR, production director Ole Andreas and senior content manager Thor Egil explained their vision:
In general, it is difficult to expect that it will be possible to retain the starting number of players for a very long time — it is always difficult [...] This is a game-service, and it is quite natural to observe cycles of activity after the release of a patch or a major update. Gamers play for a while, then interest drops a little, and then new updates come out — this is a natural process. Yes, the launch was a huge success, an incredible number of people played the game, and it was very nice to see.
Now the goal of the Dune: Awakening developers is to identify the weaknesses of the game, and they also respond to community feedback in order to refine the project and, in the future, bring players back and attract newcomers:
Our goal is to always look at where the game has weaknesses or some areas in which players ask to add something that is not yet in the game, but that corresponds to our vision — and work it out. In the "Chapter 3" update, we really encourage players to return — with the help of a "return kit" and the elimination of some annoying moments — and we hope that they will try the game again and appreciate the new features.