Age of Empires: Online

VS

Dune: Awakening

Age of Empires: Online was originally released in 2011 and officially shut down in 2014, but the game lives on through the fan-run Project Celeste servers. As a niche fan revival, its daily player base is small—likely in the low thousands—sustained by a dedicated but limited community and not benefiting from mainstream publisher support. Its activity is well below peak original levels.

As of late August 2025, Dune: Awakening had approximately 14,000 concurrent players, reflecting a significant decline from its peak of over 189,000 concurrent players shortly after launch in June 2025. This decrease is attributed to factors such as player burnout, game design issues, and technical problems. Despite these challenges, the developers remain optimistic, citing strong player retention and a 10-year development roadmap that includes plans to explore new planets and regions within the Dune universe. ([gamesradar.com](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/mmo/dune-awakening-dev-says-player-retention-has-been-extremely-good-and-the-mmos-10-year-plan-still-has-so-much-to-pull-from-in-the-lore-well-go-to-new-planets-eventually/?utm_source=openai))