For any convicing destruction effect inside a game, you can't always rely on real-time mesh destruction/subdivision. Most of the time, it will be hard to art-direct and heavy on the performance costs. You'll often need to use pre-rendered solutions to be able to control every aspect of your effect, hence the many uses of rigid-body solvers like the ones you find in SideFX's Houdini or other technologies like RayFire.
Our technical artists are used to every major tool, and can greatly improve the quality of your effects by mixing different solutions together. Here's an example of a simple RBD destruction baked in Houdini, transferred to PopcornFX in order to retrieve useful data and add a layer of real-time simulation on top, and finally rendered in Unreal Engine.
Destruction - Statue