Gran Turismo Series Tops 63 Million Sold, GT5 6.3 Million

Polyphony Digital has finally updated their official software title list to include GT5, and the numbers are even higher than previously reported. As of December 2010, the game has now sold/shipped more than 6.37 million copies around the world, pushing totals for the series past 63 million.

As is the usual trend with most games in the franchise, highest demand was in the Old World. European copies of  GT5 outsold their North American counterparts by more than a 2-to-1 margin, with 3.9 million to 1.5 million copies, respectively. Curiously, it has already outsold GT5 Prologue in every region with the exception of its native Japan.

It will be interesting to watch the revised statistics to see how the game eventually stacks up to GT4 and the series’ top seller, GT3. Regardless, these are impressive numbers – congratulations, once again, to Kazunori Yamauchi and his team!

GT5 Photomode image by Moglet.

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Comments (58)

  1. Zavior

    GT5 was the one and only reason why i bought PS3 last december.. there aint game tha can over run GT5 right now in tha market.. i mean tha picture quality seems like it has been made ofr PS4, stunning! there is so much to do, so much to race for! For me GT5 new devolepment “Karting” is somethin tha we never wanted really ba playing it now i wish they had done it before its absolutely stunning to race whit it!

    Love this game!

  2. Big Ron

    Those statistics are just shipped versions…. or let us say payed versions by markets.

    The number of sold copies to consumer is not nearly the same.

    Till now, sold copies to consumer in Germany (biggest country in Europe ;) ) is 500 000, which is a desaster in my opinion.

    I mean, not a desaster for me, but for PD. So hopefully they realised, that their final product isn´t what the player expected or wished to get.

    1. Tenacious D

      Memo to Ron:

      You’re obviously way behind the curve. Just look near the top and you’ll see the remarks that ALL developers use shipped numbers, because counting copies sold to consumers is a logistical ulcer. But if you want to tackle that sometime, jump in. ;D

      Anyhow, congrads to Kaz and the team. Now, make GT5 more like GT4 every month, and sales will at least double. And learn your lesson from your experiment with GT5. Collecting goodies like horns and stuff is cute and all, but gamers want the focus to be on racing. All forms of racing. For GT6, make sure there are lots of events for all your licenses, be they NASCAR, Rally, DTM, Formula 1 or whatever. And don’t forget to pad things with Manufacturer’s Cups, which had me racing new races in GT4 for nearly a year!

  3. Foxiol

    Jordan…post something about GranTurismo Boutique….yeah here in Europe in Gran-Turismo.com we have a store with GT staff like: racer jacket,T-shirt, long sleeve top…of course high quality and expensive too haha.

  4. Tvensky

    Europe is the Best place for GT5! :))))) This news is very good and I hope Kaz will look into those numbers and support more Eruope in future with good stuff, instead of USA, with opening music track by Chemical nonsense (Original Japanese intro was 10 times better), good Nascar, was great and had new experience there (but Europeans more love rally and it was so far away from the real thing.. exept from cars and physics part, they were awesome!), GT academy (in Europe only smart part can participate, and some thousands and millions of people cant even try it, some like me cant even register my country and play with my flag!) and other stuff that dosnt matter now, but I just hope that Sony which is in hard contact with PD will learn that there are not only major popular countries in the world, and there are alot of good and smart people all over the world and a lot of people love GT where ever they live! PS. not saying anything bad about anyone! just wanted to share my opinion! thanks! :)

  5. marchy

    Maybe Japan is lagging behind in sales due to a serious shortage of decent steering wheel controllers. The Logitech (Logicool in Japan) G27/DFGT were always out of stock. And there are no official imports for Fanatec or others…

  6. Benny44

    Excellent numbers. I think that number might almost double in the next 4 years. PS3s have finally started dropping in price. EB games has the used ones for $200 in Canada. GT5 will no doubt be one of the first purchases for many buyers, especially once it drops down to $40 new and $20 or so used.

  7. Alex Leighton

    Impressive numbers, especially considering the relatively small PS3 user base as opposed to the PS2, and the fact that the economy isn’t as good as it was in the 90s.

  8. Vesartis

    I think we have to take into consideration the number of consoles on the market, as well as the increased price of games. No console has achieved as high sales as the ps2. Since there are more consoles out there, more people will buy the games. It would be interesting to see the number of copies sold as a percentage of consoles sold, that would be a more accurate picture of success.

    Another thing you could take into account is price. GT3/4 were like $40 new and $20 later on. GT5 started at $60. So, it is actuallty possible that GT5 will end up being more profitable if it’s sales reach anything near 10 million. DLC may later come into the picture too.

    Anways, way to go PD.

  9. Fredzy

    I’d like to see how the 3 month sales compare to GT3 and 4. I thought Forza was taking a big chunk out of GT’s market but it’s hard to say.

    I imagine sales won’t drive too much further, maybe 8 million by 2012, which would add up – a 2-4 million copy bite out of GT5 sales vs. history due to Forza and maybe some others.

    1. marchy

      Where is Forza now? Or 1 month after its release? People are willing to buy a PS3 just to play GT5, but hardly any will buy a xbox360 for Forza.

    2. Josh

      Won’t be any different for GT5 six months from now. So by that argument when all the Forza 4 fanboys run out this fall and buy copies, but GT5 has settled into the post release slump, does that mean anything? Nope.
      Oh, and your right, poeple aren’t going to run out and buy Forza 3, for the same reason they don’t go out and buy Halo, just because Killzone comes out. People who want the older game allready bought it. They didn’t wait half a year for the new game first.
      So where is forza now? Ramping up for yet another sequel this fall. They’re not dragging thier feet for a half decade at a time. They’re flooding the market with has many versions has they can, with a streamlined sales strategy that focuses on repeat customers over the whole series rather than a massive invesment/production run of any given single version.
      In the end, the only thing these figures provide is some way for fanboys to sleep at night. If total sales numbers actually pointed at “the best” you’d be saying cars like the Ford Model T, Volkswagon Beetle, and Toyota Carolla were all by and away far better cars than any Lambo, Ferrari, Mercedes, etc, etc, ever made. Ehhh, no……..

    3. Jon

      Josh, use some intelligence please. Corolla and Golf have out sold Ferrari etc because they are target marketed at the masses. Your comparing and exotic car that almost 100% of the market cannot afford to a car available to everyone… That was a very poor comparison.

      Also, of course the count is on shipped copies.. You think Sony is going to ring every retailer in the world and ask what percentage of copies have been sold? It’s commonsense that retailers continue to order more copies because it sells so once again, you are wrong.

      The total number of copies on shelves would be minimal to copies that have been retailed.

      Think before you type.

    4. PistonHead

      GT4 sold 6.8 million in 9 months(7 months in US and EU), GT5 sold 6.3 million in just 1 month.

      Forza is not even a big seller in its main market and the sales outside US are minimal. It’s a game more suited to American car culture than European.

    5. Kettle black

      I love it when people who cannot understand another’s point, or refuse to in some cases, blame the other guy’s intelligence……
      By all means Jon, attack the man’s intelligence just because you obviously didn’t understand his post. Then follow it up with a made up “fact” about how many copies sold retail.
      Shelves were packed from day one arround me has well, and went on sale in january for simular discounts. That only happens when a retailer is overstocked and trying to unload before they’re taxed on the inventory.
      Most dramatic to me is my local Gamestop that still has a case and a half marked not to sell untill release day. They’re hard selling it to everyone looking at driving games in genneral at this point, and still haven’t sold the initial shipment.
      And since fanboys love to say higher sales numbers prove a better product, Josh demonstrated the flaw in that logic. Price and target market have absolutely nothing to do with it. He demonstrated that simply flooding the market with more units then your competitor gives you higher totals without any relevance to product quality.
      I also don’t read anywhere in his post, anything about needing Sony to start ringing up retailers for data, because he’s not talking about the relevance of GT5’s “real world” retail sales to it’s success. He’s only talking about the provided data’s illrelevance to determining GT5 success.
      Frankly, between the two of you, I think Josh is the only one that thought before he typed.

    6. A-spec Allen

      LMBO, I have read this page every morning wondering how long before this discussion flared up.
      Explaining to fanboys why numbers based on retail anticipation of sales means little or nothing is like telling a frog not to jump on a hot alabama road. It’ll just sit there lookiing at ya blankly till it gets scared and hops off on to the road anyway. It’s a waste of time, and more fun to watch them try to dodge about in denial of reality…….

  10. yoman297

    Gran Turismo 1: 10.85m
    Gran Turismo 2: 9.32m
    Gran Turismo 3: 14.89m
    Gran Turismo 4: 11.19m
    Gran Turismo PSP: 2.32m
    Gran Turismo 5: 6.37m

    Source: wikipedia, so obviously not that credible.

    GT5 is apparently PS3’s best seller already, and it passed GT5P, at 5.50m.

  11. RegalFunk

    Two things that seem to have been overlooked so far: In case you didn’t notice, Sony now has a serious competitor in the console market, something that wasn’t there in earnest in the PS2 days. Damn nigh everyone had a PS2, and if you wanted a racing game, GT3/4 was your best shot.

    Now with the 360 out there are good alternatives such as Forza 3 and PGR (For the more arcade-driven fans). Sales of the GT series won’t match what they used to be as long as there are popular alternatives. What does speak volumes, however, is that sales of both GT5 AND GT5:Prologue have dominated the PS3 sales charts, and judging by the numbers Wikipedia is showing, the entire Forza series hasn’t outsold either GT5 or Prologue. So good work Polyphony and Sony!

    Sorry for the essay.

    1. Goshin2568

      Well, the thing is your right. Looking at the numbers per amount of consoles sold, GT5 wins.

      150 million people bought PS2’s, and GT3 sold 14.89 copies, so about 1 in every 10 people with a ps2 had GT3.

      The PS3 on the other hand has sold 47.9 million units, and GT5 sold 6.3 million, so about 1 in every 7.6 people have GT5, making it the most successful.

      So really, the only thing making GT5 not the best selling is lack of PS3 sales.

    2. Josh

      Yup, except number of copies sold doesn’t mean number of copies leaving the store and going home with people. So, buy your logic all microsoft has to do is cram more copies of forza 4 on a shelf, come release this fall, and it becomes top dog.
      I’d be more impressed if it were not for all the stores near (Chicago Suburbs) me being being fully stocked from day 1, and some of those so overstocked that the prices dropped has much has 40% in the first month.
      All this report says to me is that alot of sellers thought GT5 was going to sell way better than it has in reality.

    1. bob-c

      Actually, cars are more popular a hobby in europe so it makes sense GT is more popular there. Not sure why you are taking that fact as an opportunity to try and take some high ground. Lets be honest here, video games IS being lazy. At the end of the day we are all sitting on our asses pressing buttons. As far as the technical aspect of video games, Your average MMORPG is quite a bit more complex and involving than a racing sim. And americans love them as does every country. So its not lazyness, just different taste.

    2. Razor

      bob-c> playing video games can be NOT lazy.Not at all.If you are going for results and competition.You probably never did that, so it may be a surprise for you.But when you are going for top10 in seasonal events time trials, it gets serious.Four hours of sweating per day in your racing seat, using wheel and pedals, can be very serious.

    3. KFM

      Yeah, you must really work up a sweat sitting down all day. Sure, it’s not the intensity of the game, but all of the physical exercise you’re getting holding a wheel and pushing some pedals.

      That’s like saying because PES and FIFA are so much bigger in Europe, that Americans are lazy because they don’t play sports games. That was a lousy ( and short ) argument.

    4. Jugglingj0hn

      That does get to the point though KFM, I don’t think car enthusiasm is as big in america in general as it is in Europe. Personally I get a little sick of reading the opinions of high horsed Europeans, its such nonsense.

    5. -=DV=-

      Or one could just simply recognize that europe is full of many countries and has a population/potential customer base many times that of north america (which is really just one country)

    6. Joe J

      “europe is full of many countries and has a population/potential customer base many times that of north america (which is really just one country)”

      Yeah, Europe’s pop. is just over double that of the USA. That being said, that figure includes people in less developed Eastern Europe who obviously buy fewer copies.

      To be honest the original argument by “Razor” was a bit stupid. There’s a difference between a sly jab-in-the-ribs and just a stupid (and not funny) comment. Well, I’m assuming “razor”s not being serious.

      As someone else said: Different tastes. Most Americans tend to find driving less of a hobby and more of a chore. Just look at the number of autos and manuals sold there compared to Europe. Obviously there’s the enthusiasts but they aren’t as common as in Europe.

  12. Tufnel

    I wonder what the figure is for how many PS3’s were sold since say a month before GT5 was released until now compared to the same time the previous year.

    My guess alot.

    regards

  13. j8mie

    Although these figures aren’t bad, I am a little surprised.

    I really can’t see GT5 overtaking GT4, let alone GT3. It does seem that PD have lost the more casual racer, also trying to compete with any game sold on the PS2 is almost impossible as the PS2 was so popular.

  14. idlestation

    Considering GT5p came out a couple of years ago and sold like 5m copies.. this is quite amazing.
    Close to 9m lifetime sales for GT5 then?

  15. -=DV=-

    I love how they count the figures of the copies shipped to retailers, Not actually move off retailers shelves. Well done either way though.

    1. GTP_V8SuperCars

      As said by others this is how it works, the store buys it so its officially “Sold” from the developer and they have made there money, what the store does with it from there is there business.

    2. Rios

      Agreed, with all responses. Funny how when Microsoft boasts about how many copies of Halo sold or when Activision goes on about how many copies of Call of Duty they’ve sold, conveniently nobody says “I love how they count copies shipped to retailers”. Seems to be only Sony and its first party developers that have to deal with these kind of pathetic little attacks. Thats how everybody counts their sales, deal with it.

    3. -=DV=-

      Stating that a misrepresentation is a misrepresentation is not an attack, grow up and stop carrying on like a childish little fanboy. And doing something simply because everybody else does doesnt magically make it gospel either.

    4. pgzzz

      Shipped is the only way numbers can be tracked. It would be very difficult to compile actual sales numbers because every single reseller would have to supply figures and you can imagine how many shops etc. there are in the world.

    5. SONICMILLER

      We you know that’s how music is sold too… when they say they went platinum all that means is they sold a huge amount to stores…

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