The Division Franchise Surpasses 50 Million Players as The Division 3 Continues Development

Massive Entertainment has revealed that The Division series has now exceeded 50 million players across all its games, coinciding with the franchise's 10th anniversary. That's a lot of +1 defense beanies!

The looter shooter saga began in 2016 with the original The Division, which launched three years after its flashy reveal at Ubisoft's E3 2013 conference—a reveal that, at the time, set high expectations for next-gen gaming (remember when the guy closed the car door while in cover?). The Division 2 followed in 2019, though its sales fell short of Ubisoft's expectations. Several spinoffs have come and gone since then.

At a community panel at Gamescom earlier this year, Massive Entertainment announced a new DLC for The Division 2. The Echoes of Central Park DLC is set to release on November 3. This new expansion—which adds a horror-themed flashback campaign, increased stash space, a level boost, and more—is likely to attract even more players, both returning and new, to shoot numbers out of some guys across the U.S.

With those kinds of numbers, it's no surprise that Ubisoft and Massive aren't done with the series. Tom Clancy's The Division 3 is 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.