The Division breaks Ubisoft sales records

Well I guess we know why Ubisoft’s servers had a little stumble as The Division came online in the US: it’s broken company records for the most copies of any game sold in 24 hours, in total, on PC and on those strange living room game boxes.

Exact figures are not forthcoming, but we know that it’s nicked the crown from Watchdogs, their previous day-one best-seller, and that shifted 4 million copies over the course of a week. Working backwards, carrying the zero and dividing by pi, that equates to… a lot of Division players.

“This is a momentous day for Ubisoft,” CEO Yves Guillemot said in a blog post, “but more importantly it marks the start of millions of players’ enduring engagement in The Division’s game world, which we are confident they will love.”

There’s the real test for Ubisoft Massive: ‘enduring engagement’. It’s all very well to get millions in through the door, but as Destiny (holder of the global record for 24-hour sales) discovered, it’s harder to keep them there. Ubi will have to be ready to change its approach at the drop of a hat. Our James Davenport is enjoying his first few hours with The Division and still has plenty left to play, but how New York will fare a month after first contact is more important than its opening day.