With The Division 3 Still in Active Development, Ubisoft Announces The Division Franchise Has Hit More Than 50 Million Players

Massive Entertainment has announced that The Division series has recorded over 50 million players across its games, just as the series hits its 10th anniversary. That’s a lot of +1 defense beanies!

The long-running looter shooter began life in 2016 with the launch of The Division. It came out three years after its flashy reveal at Ubisoft's E3 2013 conference which, at the time, exceeded expectation for next-gen gaming (remember when the guy closed the car door while in cover?). The Division 2 followed in 2019, but sales failed to meet Ubisoft's expectations. A number of spinoffs have come and gone since.

Massive Entertainment announced a new DLC for The Division 2 at a community panel at Gamescom earlier this year. The Echoes of Central Park DLC releases on November 3. It seems likely the new expansion — which adds a horror-themed flashback campaign, a stash space increase, a level boost, and more — will see even more players shoot numbers out of some guys across the U.S., both returning and new.

With those kinds of numbers, it’s no surprise Ubisoft and Massive aren’t done with the series. Tom Clancy's The Division 3 is also officially in production at Massive Entertainment. Originally headed up by executive producer Julian Gerighty (who also led Star Wars Outlaws and The Division 2), The Division 3 is now in the hands of creative director Mathias Karlson, game director on The Division 2. Gerighty recently left Ubisoft to work at Battlefield developer DICE.

Gerighty confirmed his departure in a social media post just a week after appearing on a livestream to promote The Division 3. “So, The Division 3 is in production, right?” he said before his departure. “This is not a secret. It's been announced. It's shaping up to be a monster.

“I can't really say anything more than that. But this is, within these walls in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be as big an impact as Division 1 was.”

Following his departure, Massive reassured fans that The Division 3 was in safe hands. “For our players, don’t worry, Agents,” the studio said in a social media post. “Our teams who built this world with Julian are still here, carrying it forward with an ambitious, unchanged commitment to the future.”

There’s no word on when The Division 3 will launch, but Ubisoft is making it a priority. Late last year, Massive Entertainment introduced what it called a "voluntary career transition program," as part of a move to focus on The Division franchise and its Snowdrop game engine.