Gran Turismo 5 Goes Interstellar!

Following on from the Tweet detailing GT Academy‘s online participation, Kazunori Yamauchi has also Tweeted figures about GT5’s cumulative online racing to date – a truly staggering 36.4 billion miles in the 577 days since launch!

Numbers of this magnitude are difficult to comprehend without context, so here’s some equivalents:

  • GT5 players have driven the distance from the Earth to the Sun. And back. 200 times.
  • Or the distance from the Sun to Neptune. And back. Thirteen times.
  • In under 2 years GT5 players have driven three times further than Voyager 1 has managed in 35 years.
  • We’d still take 1,367 years to drive GT5 to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri…

The average increase in distance is 63 million miles a day, with GT5’s online players covering the same distance in 2 days as the entire GT Academy 2012 competition has so far! This corresponds to 2.6 million mph or around 730 miles per second, enough to:

  • Equal the record distance in the Nürburgring 24hr in 3.4 seconds
  • Drive from San Francisco to New York in 3.5 seconds
  • Drive from New York to London in 4.7 seconds
  • Drive from London to Sydney in 14.4 seconds
  • Drive around the Earth in the time it took you to read this article
  • Drive to the Moon in 5 minutes 27 seconds

Even though the average online race in Gran Turismo 5 is only just over 12 miles in length, the community as a whole is certainly getting their money’s worth from the game with each player driving nearly 5,000 online miles.

Comments (142)

  1. Quakebass

    Today was the PERECT day to get a YLOD! I just got Gold on TRM to get the GT Academy prize, saved and quit, started up Burnout Dominator, played for 5 minutes, and voila! Black screen, three beeps, and the system shuts off. I tried turning it back on, light went green, beeped three times, turned yellow, then stared blinking red. Oh boy.

    Luckily, I know how to fix this on my own, and not paying Sony $150. I’ll be back to GT5 in likely less than a week!

    1. Quakebass

      Well, according to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Ic1_TY-GU

      The most likely problem is a disconnected CPU or GPU, and just requires a simple re-solder. All you need is some specific screw drivers and a soldering iron/heat gun (and a little prior knowledge in electronics) and your set to repair! Watch that video – it should work. I don’t currently have the driver heads required to open the system.

    2. 77

      from experience you can pretty easily get away with using a v.small flat head jewellers type screwdriver to undo the three security screws at the front (on a ps slim but i think they all use same screws), its not too pretty but it works fine to take em in and out, kinda wedge it between the middle pin and two of the notches round the edge.

    1. Famine

      Again, not when “our” refers to the Sol system.

      We’re just a rocky ball orbiting a star. Were we an exoplanet we’d be called “Sol c”, indicating we’re the third rock from the Sol star. The nearest star to the Sol system would be Proxima Centauri – at least for now.

    2. PR1VATEJ0KER

      And not when ‘our’ refers to the Milky Way

      We are in a single galaxy “The milky way”. The nearest Galaxies could be the Magellanic Clouds. But I can’ figure out exactly where the edge of our galaxy is and where the next begins. Then spotting the nearest star will take a while. I have only shrewdly made telescope I stole from the National Art and History musuem when I was a mere child. I ‘ll get back to you.

  2. GRAFX21

    Now if “we” as human knew the inner knowledge that we all have to be able to teleport….

    That is exactly how fast we would/could travel…Must be a nice feeling to be Goku.

  3. MyFavoriteGame

    GT Academy blah blah – 40 comments
    Jordan Tresson blah blah blah – 30 comments
    GT5 asia blah – 29 comments
    Top 10 finish blah blah – 70 comments
    Seasonal events blah blah – 40 comments

    DLC possible rumors, maybe coming soon. nothing confirmed , don’t hold your breath – 700 comments

    lol.

    1. HarVee

      People care more about DLC than GT Academy. I can’t blame them for that though, GT Academy doesn’t expand the Gran Turismo 5 experience, whereas DLC and seasonal events do.

    2. RobDoggy05

      And watch, when/if the DLC gets launched, it wont even be what us gamers wanted because PD dont listen to what the public want, just more Japanese content.. sad

  4. ZedMan1996

    That’s pretty cool! I got 30,000Miles+ on my profile excluding GT Academy 2012! My best score on the last event only using a wheel was 107th. I know it sounds like I’m boasting.

    1. Witless76

      Who’s bleat is that?
      It’s not a bleat, it’s a boast.
      Who’s boast is that?
      It’s Zed’s boast, baby.

  5. sibbystiggy

    We’ve been going around in circles again & again that many times, never got anywhere new (just 70 circuits), its like cycling at the GYM… we are basically controlling currents in 70 electric circuits lol

  6. carfanatic45

    Well i have a felling that not even ET himself can find DLC. To bad driving alot in GT5 doesnt allow you to go to diffrent dimensions.

  7. Raggadish

    Again only with the milles. How about using km too, or doesn’t GT planet bother with catering to the whole world?

    1. Famine

      Fun thing is that the graphic contains the figure in kilometers and I converted it to miles so that everyone – including the US and UK – had a unit with which they were familiar, catering to the whole world… Everything else is equivalent distances compared to planetary orbits and times in seconds, except the last paragraph…

    2. Raggadish

      Famine: Last paragraph is half of the written post. :/ But perhaps I shouldn’t complain, I’m not contributing to the site doing so.

  8. Pit Crew

    I know this is fun thread, but if any of this information helps PD develop a more stable and user friendly online environment (oil changes online public/private lobby) for GT6 we may actually close thatto Proxima Centauri gap in 2yrs (Opinion) as there will be less unwanted disconnects from ORL, (Online Race Lobby) leading to more players finishing a 2.4 HR Lesarthe League Event they were winning when…. Ohsorry that 1 still hurts.

  9. Skyline_77

    Really makes you wonder..

    Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, and it’s 4 light years away. Seriously, what’s out there?
    Really makes you just think deep thoughts. It’s truly scary to think about.

    1. Tvensky

      Its very interesting and breathtaking! Proxima Centauri seems to be very far far far far away………

    1. mistersafeway

      They could probably work out how many while people were connected to the Internet. They could also calculate that somebody who has, for example, the extreme series complete trophy has driven a minimum of (insert the correct number) miles offline.

    2. Quakebass

      I don’t know – but my offline mileage is likely at LEAST about 5-10 times greater than my online mileage, though I know some people use online a LOT more than me, but some less. If they could include B-Spec as well, we’d likely have added a zero or two to the end of the number due to the amount of times I did the 24 and 9 hour races to get to B-spec level 40.

  10. BlacqueJacques

    •GT5 players have virtually driven the virtual distance from the virtual Earth to the virtual Sun. And back. 200 virtual times. :)

  11. mikecustom

    the truly staggering thing is that it continues to average 63 million miles per day almost 2 years after it was released

    1. TomBrady

      Negative. It’s only in the GT Academy demo at the moment. Sorry 8 mile but I think you’re confused homie

  12. WJHMH

    “We’d still take 1,367 years to drive GT5 to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri…”

    Well then I’ll just use the RedBull X2011 & get there a bit faster.

  13. BWX

    So on SS7 when people were doing donuts, every donut counted as an entire lap.. 14.47 mi. That’s not counting all the other ”cheats” and exploits.. So really, the numbers are more than slightly BS unless all those miles are taken out.

    1. Pit Crew

      Good point BWX, but dang bro now I gotta go back and recalculate again…now let me see…lol JKJK :)

    2. TomBrady

      haha and you actually think that would even put a dent in these numbers?

      Stop being so negative dude

    3. Quakebass

      I don’t think GT5 counts miles by the amount of laps completed, I think it actually measures them as a real car would.

      I may be wrong though, I have no sources.

      @TomBrady:

      It WOULD put a dent in those numbers… 14.5 miles every 2-3 seconds is a little quick… But that’s only if it counts distance based on laps completed.

    4. BWX

      Try 14+ miles every second or less, much less actually- for every person doing it, for hours and hours and hours over many many servers over the entire time those exploits were used (weeks).

      It was an A-Spec feeding frenzy. I bet there was a huge spike in mileage last march or whenever that was. And yes I bet it calculated the mileage, why wouldn’t it?

      Yes I think it would put a dent in those numbers, probably a significant one..
      And it’s not ”being negative”- it’s called reality, you should try it sometime.

      Next argument: who cares.

  14. Dooblewasur

    Intergalactic Planetary Planetary Intergalactic
    Another Dimension Another Dimension Another Dimension

    Go GT5!

  15. Sergio Perez

    AWESOME! GT5 is looking how many millions of miles we go and not looking at all the comments wanting cars other then crappy Nissans…

    1. Pit Crew

      Still a pretty cool accomplishment. Fan base definitely has legs uhhh wheels UKWIM. Wondr what the distance is when calculated by the cars each GT5 player own? Example my 27 Cudas make up what distance between the earth and say…Saturn? lol jkjk this is a fun thread.

    2. JohnyPiston

      One of the greatest negative consequences of having many Nissans is that it is now somehow making people think they are “crappy”. R34 is crappy?!? R35 crappy?!? 350Z crappy?!? R32 crappy?!? Please folks, let us be clear that what we do not like is the inclusion of too many variants of the same car. But to target Nissan and then generalise by calling them crappy is to confuse the issue. A comment like that is more likely to piss them off than anything else.

    1. Flagmo-T

      Gt5’s nearest star is me and i’m right here in DK Laughing over your statement :P hehe Good one though :o)

  16. Mac K

    GT Academy isn’t part of the 36.4 billion is it? No matter your opinion on PD or GT5, there is no denying that that is a pretty impressive feat, and saying otherwise only makes one sound a bit ignorant.

    1. Famine

      0%. It’s from online races only, as in the graphic. If you were to include Remote Races, Seasonals, Arcade and A- and B-Spec, you could easily add a zero to the end of this number.

    2. ksignore

      I’ve ran the 9 hours at Tsukuba and 24 hours of Le Mans at least 5 times each just to get to Level 40. Ugh.

  17. topolino

    over 2 million miles are only from me muhahaha….
    so we get a pioneer probe or a space shuttle next DLC…..

  18. Foxiol

    Amazing. In the real world i did more than 3 laps to the Earth in 2 and a half years. I worked as a carrier. ;)

  19. AndRome

    Does anyone else find these stats a bit silly? Virtual mileage is the same as Monopoly money, no value. IMO

    1. Foxiol

      To me it has value because i counted my Km in my daily work (carrier) too and in less than 2 and a half years i did “3 laps” to the entire Earth. And i did less in the game but still probably 2 laps to the Earth.
      The funny thing is that it takes more or less the same time to do it if you “drive” at a normal speed. That´s why it has its value…you are spending a lot of time on it…and yes it counts even being in a virtual world.

    2. Famine

      I should hope you do find them silly. The post was written with quite some levity – driving through space to catch Voyager 1 is patently ridiculous. It doesn’t do one any good to take life and our entertainment too seriously.

      However, “virtual miles” are the only way to measure online participation and the fact is that the 7 million copies of the game have been used to drive 36.4 billion miles in online races. This post only exists to put into context just how mind-bogglingly colossal this distance is, in humourous terms…

  20. Flaco13

    You can also take your bike and do a couple of miles on it, or walk a certain distance, a day. Don’t forget that, it seems like some people do.

  21. ttfn

    im into most sports, not least wrestling, so in the words of hall of famer Ron Simmons…………………………………….DAMN!!!!!!!!!!

    Those figures are, no pun intended, astronomical. id love to see the figures for that arcade racer on that glorified pc!!!!!!

  22. Milldrum

    My wife doesn’t care if I have driven to the sun. :(

    Those numbers are staggering. What it more staggering is that they are tracking it all. To keep those figures for that long is an accomplishment in itself. I wonder if they know what cars we are doing them in?

    1. tube chaser

      I’ll bet they do, and that that’s how they’re going to prioritise which Standards to upgrade to Premium quality for GT6. So make sure your favourite Standards don’t gather dust, because that will be the next hot topic: PD y u no include *car* in GT6..

      BTW great stats Famine, Quakebass is gonna love this article!

  23. Jaycue58

    Jeez some people need to get a life interstellar is an acronym nothing more nothing less who gives a s**t what its true meaning is
    i hate to go to a party with some of these poopers

  24. SimonK

    Some of those stats are a bit odd. How can you compare millions of drivers cumulatively covering 2.6 million miles an hour to one person driving from San Fran to New York?

  25. Turbo-Kai

    wow…power to the people!!!
    390 AU….alpa centaury (next star system close to ours) is only 23,6 AU away…
    LET’S GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE!

    1. ttfn

      Sorry fellow but i think you’ll find its a TINY bit further away than 23.6AU

      Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our Solar System. It lies about 4.37 light-years in distance, or about 41.5 trillion kilometres, 25.8 trillion miles or 277,600 AU

  26. mistersafeway

    I wish there was some way to know how far I’ve driven online. A few thousand laps of Nordschleife for a start…

  27. Roger the Horse

    Please may I point out that ‘interstellar’ is an inaccurate term to be used here. Considering the fact that it would take GT5 players 1,367 years to drive to our nearest star other than Sol, Proxima Centauri, we are nowhere near ‘interstellar’. ‘Interplanetary’ definitely, but not ‘interstellar’.

    Just my two credits.

    1. Famine

      “Interstellar” refers to the space between stars (“inter” is “between”, “stellar” refers to stars) where no single star’s stellar wind is dominant. Voyager 1, at a measly 11 billion miles distant from the Sun has passed the Heliopause and Heliosheath and is now approaching the Interstellar Medium that forms interstellar space. GT5 players have covered three times more distance than Voyager 1 and, if transcribed into straight line distance from Earth, are well into interstellar space – interstellar is an wholly accurate term to use.

      GT Academy is merely interplanetary, having covered sufficient distance to drive from the Earth to the Sun past the planets of Venus and Mercury. And then Mercury again on the way back.

    2. mistersafeway

      Famine, I have always respected you (you can close threads and ban people), but my respect has just SHOT up. Most people don’t have a clue about that sort of stuff. Is it possible that you are (whisper it) a nerd…?

    3. Roger the Horse

      Famine obviously knows his stuff. I study astronomy and I didn’t know (or at least, didn’t remember) that Interstellar space is the space where no stars solar wind is dominant.
      Nerd, no. Clever, yes.

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