The Division 2 ‘the best-selling game in the first half of 2019’

Ubisoft has claimed The Division 2 was the best-selling game worldwide in the first half of 2019.

During the publisher’s quarterly sales conference call on Wednesday, chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet also said the company expects to see a “nice” uptick in engagement and acquisition when it rolls out the first of several free major content updates later this month.

“The Division 2 is the best-selling game worldwide for the first six months of the year,” Duguet said.

Ubisoft claimed the The Division 2 was the “industry’s biggest hit” for consoles and PC in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Latin America and Japan between January and June 2019, based on data from sales tracking groups NPD, GSD, GfK and Famitsu, as well as the publisher’s own estimates.

• Related: Review: The Division 2

“For the future,” Duguet added on the conference call, “we plan to drive acquisitions and engagement with a significant post-launch release plan, including three major content updates available for free to all players, with additional narratives and missions, new PvE mode and new specialisations.

“Episode 1 – DC Outskirts: Expeditions, will start releasing on July 23,” he continued.

“This major content update will include two new main missions, two classified assignments, a new Discovery difficulty setting for the raid, and the most demanded adjustments based on our community feedback. We expect it will have a nice boost to global activity and acquisition.”

On the same conference call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was coy on the publisher’s virtual reality plans when asked about reports Facebook has signed deals for exclusive Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed Oculus VR games.

Ubisoft recently revealed that Netflix has signed the rights to the upcoming The Division movie. Starring Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal, it will be directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2).