The Division is again at the forefront of player numbers. Additionally, 2018 promises to be huge.
2017 was a lean year for Division:
- In February, Update 1.6 was released, introducing the PvP mode Last Stand
- In May, a few features like loadouts were added with Update 1.6.1
- In August, Update 1.7 arrived, bringing global events, secret gear sets, and commendations
However, all these updates did not lead to The Division gaining real momentum again. They could not solve the problem that there was a lack of fresh content – new activities and new reasons to log in regularly.
This is shown by a look at the Steam charts:
- In the first months of 2017, The Division languished with around 10,000 concurrent players. Update 1.6 did not bring any upswing
- In May, the player base temporarily rose to over 18,000, but dropped back to just under 7,000 a few weeks later.
- Update 1.7 managed to push the concurrent players to 20,000, but then it plummeted.
- The worst phase for The Division was reached in October and November, when the player base on Steam held just over 4,000.
By the way: The official player numbers on PS4 and Xbox One cannot be seen, but they will likely behave similarly to those on Steam.
In December, player numbers rose rapidly
However, the Division developers had not yet used all their ammunition for 2017, as they released Update 1.8 in early December, which brought significant momentum to the shared-world shooter. It was the largest update in the history of The Division, introducing a map expansion, two new game modes, new exotics, and many other innovations.
Player numbers soared at the launch of 1.8, reaching the highest annual value of over 33,000 concurrent players according to the Steam charts. Massive tweeted at the time that the Division servers on all platforms were nearing maximum capacity and that they needed to scale up.
The Division experienced a renaissance – which is still ongoing.
It continues – Average player numbers as high as in 2016
Because the player numbers are still stable high a month later. The peak values range between 16,000 and 18,000 concurrent players. Thus, The Division currently ranks around 30th place among the Steam top games by current player numbers.
Particularly interesting here are the average active players, which are the core of The Division. Here, values are reached that were last seen only in the release year 2016. In the last 30 days, there were nearly 14,000 players on average just from Steam.
2018 is expected to be huge
Recently, Massive’s community developer Hamish Bode spoke out on Twitter. He promises big things for the new year 2018.
Today, on January 3rd, he is resuming work. Previously, he was on winter vacation. He writes: “2018 will be huge!”
It seems that the developers have a lot planned around The Division for 2018. Let’s hope that they can carry the current momentum into the new year.
Whether we can expect a Year 3 or even a sequel “The Division 2”, we will likely find out in the coming weeks. We will report on it.
A few days ago, statements from a developer about the future of The Division surfaced:
