Artifact

VS

Dune: Awakening

Artifact, developed and published by Valve, launched in 2018 as a digital collectible card game. Despite Valve's reputation, the game quickly lost players due to its controversial monetization and gameplay reception, and official updates largely ceased. The player base is now extremely low, with only a handful of daily matches played as of recent years.

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))