Which Gran Turismo game sold most?

By Robert Purchese Published 10 December, 2010

Clue: it's not the PSP one.

Why does Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, get special dispensation from Sony when he makes a game? Because each main Gran Turismo release has sold roughly 10 million copies - or more.

The best of the bunch is Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, released 2001, with a gargantuan 14.80 million copies sold worldwide.

Gran Turismo 4 and the original Gran Turismo are almost neck-and-neck behind GT3, with 10.86 million and 10.81 million sales each, respectively.

Yamauchi's second game, Gran Turismo 2, didn't quite make it past 10 million sales, but finished close with 9.34 million sales.

Gran Turismo 5, the most recent instalment, has now shipped 5.5 million units.

Those are the core releases. Preceding the fifth game was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 2008, which shifted a significant 4.81 million copies. In contrast, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue sold 1.34 million copies.

There's an interesting geographical twist to the figures, too. Whereas record holder Gran Turismo 3 sold the most copies in America (7.14 million), every other Gran Turismo has done bigger business in Europe - barring GT2, which narrowly sold more in the US.

Typically, Yamauchi has opted for lower numbers of cars when launching on new PlayStation hardware: PSone debutant Gran Turismo 1 had 178 cars (according to Wikipedia), a figure Gran Turismo 2 took to 650; PS2 debutant Gran Turismo 3 had 180 cars, a figure Gran Turismo 4 bumped to 722.

Gran Turismo 5, however, bucks that trend like a steroid-pumped donkey, with a whopping roster of 1031 cars. I dread to think what Yamauchi will insist goes in to Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo lifetime sales are below:

  • Gran Turismo (PSone 1998) - Europe: 4.27m, US: 3.98m, Japan: 2.55m, Asia: 0.01m
  • Gran Turismo 2 (PSone 2000) - US: 3.96, Europe: 3.65, Japan: 1.171, Asia: 0.02m
  • Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (PS2 2001) - US: 7.14m, Europe: 5.76m, Japan: 1.89m, Asia: 0.01m
  • Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo (PS2 2002) - Europe: 0.94m, Japan: 0.43m, Asia: 0.13m, US: N/A
  • Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (PS2 2004) - Japan: 0.79m, Europe: 0.39, Asia: 0.16m, US: N/A
  • Gran Turismo 4 (PS2 2005) - Europe: 6.40m, US: 3.02m, Japan: 1.27m, Asia: 0.17m
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3 2008) - Europe: 3.04m, US: 1.13m, Japan: 0.53m, Asia: 0.11m
  • Gran Tursimo (PSP 2009) - Europe: 1.19m, US: 0.67m, Japan: 0.32m, Asia: 0.04m
  • Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 2010) - Europe: 3.56m, US: 1.25m, Japan: 0.55m, Asia: 0.16m

The evolution of Gran Turismo.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • killest #1 1 year ago

    How many copies did the psp version sell?

  • TopKatt #2 1 year ago

    ^^

    Not sure but I got it free and was still disappointed with it.

  • PixelPirate #3 1 year ago

    Oh sorry i appear to have got lost, this is GameIndustry.biz right?

    //sarcasm
    Edited by PixelPirate at 10/12/10 @ 14:18

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #4 1 year ago

    Good point. I've added the PSP sales now - sorry about that.

  • jamhead #5 1 year ago

    "There's an interesting geographical twist to the figures..."

    Not that interesting though, surely.

    Lets face it, this is just an excuse to show the evolution of GT vid again isn't it?

  • BritishBlue1 #6 1 year ago

    When you compare the current sales of GT5, with the lifetime sales of all the others, it's already selling amazingly well.

    I bought it Day 1 and I'm very satisfied with my purchase. :)

  • alcides #7 1 year ago

    pokemon's only got 599, gotta catch up

  • coolbritannia #8 1 year ago

    GT3 got me into proper racing games. Richly deserved sales.

  • Toothball #9 1 year ago

    Gran Turismo PSP is the only one I own, and I got that free for getting a PSP Go. Although, I did have to spend a month complaining to Sony after they decided I wasn't worthy of owning it.

  • jonsaan #10 1 year ago

    The PSP one is fantastic. If only they would release a career DLC pack.

  • FladgeMangle #11 1 year ago

    Double plus jonsaan.

  • Bonders99 #12 1 year ago

    5.5 million in just over 2 weeks is impressive, for a platfrom exclusive.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #13 1 year ago

    Shipped and sold are two different things. Still, shipping over 5m is just as impressive.

  • sonicyoda #14 1 year ago

    What I'd give for a share in Polyphony Digital during the PSone days...

  • superjag86 #15 1 year ago

    I hope GT6 is released on the PS3 and has way more new and more importantly premium cars. Also there are quite a few missing tracks that could do with updating for the PS3.
    Either GT6 or a few premium expansions for GT5 would do the trick

  • bluemax #16 1 year ago

    @superjag86

    I hope they will release plenty of premium car packs and road packs!!! I want race tracks and road tracks maybe a panamerica pack or something. For GT6 they should take their time :-)

  • sanctusmortis #17 1 year ago

    And yet GT2 remains my favourite.

  • warthog2k #18 1 year ago

    PSP version was technically brilliant. Still looking for the 'game' though.
    If all they'd done was deliver a straight port of GT3 I would've been ecstatic. As it was... meh.
    Shame :(

  • toa_boa #19 1 year ago

    Gran Turismo 5 (PS3 2010) - Europe: 3.56m, US: 1.25m, Japan: 0.55m, Asia: 0.16m

    Interesting to see the shipped to sold ratio in the US, with 400K sold so far and 1.25m shipped

  • Stop-gap #20 1 year ago

    Huh, I thought Japan would have been much more keen on GT.

  • MJHaylett #21 1 year ago

    lol I have the 9 games in that list :D All boxed copies sitting on my shelf as I type this.

  • devil_badger #22 1 year ago

    Didn't realise the PSP version was called Gran Tursimo

  • The_Inquisitor #23 1 year ago

    I'm surprised GT 3 A-Spec sold so few compared to the US, given that most other titles were higher. Probably because the PS3 was released later in Europe therefore the user base was lower.

  • aphexstwin #24 1 year ago

    had all the main console games, and 5p. the 2nd was epic but my favourite was and still is gt4, for the realistic circuits and the amount of them, plus rally mode. thats two things forza disappoints me on.

  • DrStrangelove #25 1 year ago

    I'm surprised that GT5 sales are so Europe-heavy. First I thought, maybe the Americans are unfamiliar with the idea of corners, and hence uninterested. But they bought a lot of the first three parts, so that can't be the reason. Maybe most of them turned the Xbox (which came out after GT3) and to Forza Motorsport, which came a few months after GT4?

    I calculated a bit to see each region's percentage of world wide sales:

    GT1 - Europe: 39.5% - US: 36.8% - Japan: 23.6%
    GT2 - Europe: 39.1% - US: 42.4% - Japan: 12.5%
    GT3 - Europe: 38.9% - US: 48.2% - Japan: 12.8%
    GT4 - Europe: 58.9% - US: 27.8% - Japan: 11.7%
    GT5P - Europe: 63.2% - US: 23.5% - Japan: 11.0%
    GTPSP* - Europe: 53.6% - US: 30.2% - Japan: 14.4%
    GT5 - Europe: 64.7% - US: 22.7% - Japan: 10.0%

    *in % of the 4 regions listed in the article

    I would find it very interesting to know the reasons, since the imbalance between the regions is quite extreme. Also, given the small percentage of Japanese sales, maybe PD should think again about GT's extremely Japan-heavy car roster.

  • Stop-gap #26 1 year ago

    Well DrStrangelove, I was wondering the same too, especially since it was supposedly Japanese manufacturers who were most opposed to letting us smash their cars up in races, and so the game might actually be better off without them. I would answer:
    1) PD, being Japanese and based in Japan, I imagine they have an easier time talking Japanese motor companies into licensing their cars. Plus, if I was making a driving game, I confess it'd wind up being Euro-centric. ;)
    2) You don't have to be Japanese to miss Japanese cars from the line up. In fact not having them would seem like a worse omission than damage in the end, I expect.

    What's more interesting is that the Japanese sales percentage seems to be in steady decline, according to your figures. Is this possibly the reason for the new RPG-ish levelling and management motifs, to get some attention at home?

    Personally I think they'd be better off trimming the fat. Sure there's 1000 cars, but who cares when 17 of them are slightly different Civics?

  • DrStrangelove #27 1 year ago

    Dear Stop-gap,

    about 650 of GT5's 1031 cars are Japanese. Which is quite a lot, I think. I don't want to question Japan's influence and importance on cars, but 100 Hondas, 72 Mitsubishis and 146 Nissans are a bit off the scale compared to 21 Mercs, 19 BMWs and 26 Fords imho. Or 16 Daihatsus compared to 15 Alfas.

    They should definitely do something about that, if they don't want to verify Keiji Inafune's criticism that Japan only thinks about itself and doesn't care a lot about the rest of the world.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #28 1 year ago

    why is almost every ps3 game under judged by EG? ps3 came before xbox but yet it is always alienated for being a better console...my xbox 360 has been collecting dust and spiders since ps3 came out! don't you just get pissed about just playing halo all year round because i did

  • King_of_Hyrule #29 1 year ago

    Seeing how big the sales in Europe are makes me wonder why we're always considered an afterthought in release dates/ game shows etc

  • Cosmopolitan #30 1 year ago

    "The PSP one is fantastic. If only they would release a career DLC pack."

    I found it dull. No career mode, no night tracks = no fun for me. It was playable, but nothing more. A 5/10.

  • seabassuk #31 1 year ago

    Remember when 178 cars used to sound like a lot. Now those of us who like GT would say that number is too small these days lol.