Dune Awakening May weekend beta start time countdown

Dune Awakening is about to receive its biggest-ever weekend beta, starting on May 9, 2025 (GMT) and running through May 12, 2025 (Monday). This beta will be the most complete form you can experience this survival MMO thus far, as it will contain almost all of the game's first Act. Note, however, that it's not an open beta — only a lucky few among those who signed up will get in.

Leading up to its now-delayed release date, this is likely the final option players will get to sample an early crunch of Dune Awakening.

If you're wondering whether we know the start time of this Dune Awakening playtest weekend, the answer is yes. The developers have officially disclosed it in a recent Reddit AMA, and we're going to discuss all the relevant details here.

When will the Dune Awakening beta start today? (May 9, 2025)

As confirmed by Funcom, the first batch of Dune Awakening beta servers opens at 8 am ET (12 pm noon GMT) on May 9, 2025. However, note that we say the first batch, because the servers will open up in waves, as fresh waves of beta invitation keys get rolled out and claimed.

That being said, if you're one of the lucky few to have already received a Dune Awakening beta key for May 9, 2025, here's when the servers open for you:

United States and South America: 5 am PST / 6 am MDT / 7 am CDT / 8 am EDT / 10 am BRT
Europe: 12 pm GMT / 12 pm UTC / 1 pm BST / 2 pm CET / 2 pm EET
Asia: 4 pm GST / 5:30 pm IST / 8 pm PHT / 8 pm CST (Beijing Time) / 9 pm JST/KST
Australia: 11 pm AEDT (May 9) / 1 am NZDT (May 10)

If your timezone does not fall under the purview of any of these, here's a handy countdown for the first server batch:

Also read: All Starting Classes and Skills in Dune Awakening

Will there be server queues during the beta?

The Gob Jabbar shouldn't hurt for too long (Image via Funcom)

Since it's an invitation-only beta with a finite number of keys, long wait times are unlikely.

This Dune Awakening weekend beta is meant to be a stress test of sorts for Funcom's server infrastructure. You start the game in the first area, Hagga Basin, in a 40-player server (officially called a Sietch).

Access to a specific Sietch is restricted once the 40-player cap is reached. However, this is just to balance out the buildable space on the map. The developers have reassured that they are prepared for the beta population:

"We will have plenty of hardware at launch so that people can play on low, medium, or high population Worlds if they want to. We will have 100s of Worlds and 1000s of servers at launch."

How long will the Dune Awakening beta weekend go on?

The Dune Awakening beta weekend is supposed to last four days, starting on May 9, 2025 (Friday) and terminating on May 12, 2025 (Monday). As officially disclosed, the servers will terminate at 6 pm ET on May 12, 2025 (Monday).

North America: 5:59 PM EDT / 2:59 PM PDT
South America: 18:59 BRT
Europe: 23:59 CEST
Asia: 5:59 CST / 6:59 JST

The developers estimate that it will take you 20-25 hours to experience all the content present in this beta, so this will be enough time to sample most of what is on offer, even if you don't grind day and night.

Not sure what to start with? You can get a head start by looking at the class options available in this game:

About the author

Sambit Pal is an esports Journalist on Gaming and MMO at Sportskeeda. He has Master's degree in English Literature. In his spare time, he is an amateur sleuth trying to trace the Riven Mafia in Warframe, and a recovering Bethesda modding addict. He also secretly enjoys action Roguelites, a severe lack of gitting gud notwithstanding.

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Edited by Sambit Pal