The Division sales make it the biggest ever game to be released in the spring

The previous record holder had been Gran Turismo 4, which went on sale in 2005

Unexpectedly high demand has resulted in the beta being extended (Ubisoft)

The Division is now the biggest ever game to have gone on sale in the first three months of any year.

The new Tom Clancy game has smashed through the record set by Gran Turismo 4, which was released in 2005 for PlayStation 2.

It is still far from the biggest ever game release in the UK, even for Ubisoft — which saw more sales from Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed 3. But the company already said last week that worldwide it had sold more copies of the game in its first 24 hours than any other new game it had made.

PlayStation 4 accounted for 54 per cent of console sales, with Xbox One representing the rest. That is a much closer split than usual, with the Xbox One likely helped by Microsoft’s role in marketing the game and the fact that the console will be getting early access to the new levels that will be released through DLC.

The huge sales meant that The Division dominated the gaming charts this week. There were very few new releases otherwise — the only other major new game was Hitman, which had a digital-only release and so does not show up on retailer’s charts.