Gran Turismo series sells over 90 million units

The Gran Turismo series has sold over 90 million units, developer Polyphony Digital has announced.

This stunning figure comes from Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi as part of a message to the fans to celebrate 25 years of racing simulation.

Although Sony hasn’t announced it as such, Gran Turismo is PlayStation’s best-selling franchise. A lot of that has to do with its longevity – there’s been a Gran Turismo game on every PlayStation home console ever released.

The first Gran Turismo came out for PSone in 1997 and was a huge hit. Gran Turismo 2 came out two years later in 1999 and was just as big.

Time for anecdotes! When we were working for GAME in Barnsley in 2000, we hooked up Gran Turismo to a giant TV which we placed in front of the front doors for passers-by to see. Gran Turismo was pretty much the most realistic looking game at the time, so it would do a great job of grabbing people’s attention, luring them to the shop and, we hoped, convincing them to release it along with a new one to buy PlayStation. We repeated the trick with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec on the PS2. Racing games do a really great job of showcasing new hardware!

The latest release is Gran Turismo 7, which came out in March for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The Eurogamer review brought back a Recommended badge, with Martin saying “Sony’s flagship series is returning to its glory days”.

“We have a newfound determination to continue our progress into the future with a strong sense of purpose,” said Yamauchi.

“We appreciate all of your support over the past 25 years. Thank you.”