Gran Turismo Sport has Sold Around 3.3 Million Copies Worldwide

[sems4arsenal]

@Famine The shipped vs sold point was brought up by Daniel Ahmad on ERA (an admin and a digital games analyst for the Asian market). The article has now clarified that, but it wasn't before.

Your post is really fascinating though. Surprised to see GTPSP still being sold at a constant manner.

We'll probably get an update on the game's sales from Sony at one point (5M milestone perhaps), but as of now -- I still maintain that we can't really deduce much.

The 3.3 number isn't bad, but it still is way behind the average for a mainline entry. 5-6 million life time seems the cealing I reckon.

 

[Brend]

The result is decent enough, I don't think PD or Sony will be too disappointed by the outright numbers. Where they might be curious is how many people caved and bought the game as a result of the heavy reduction in price. GaaS is becoming harder and harder to justify for full price games thanks to juggernaughts like Fortnite and trailblazers like Rocket League. What gives a barebones Gran Turismo game (at launch) the right to charge £50 and then eventually get to a content level that justifies it? I loved Driveclub to bits (still do, actually) but there's no denying that the severe requirement in reducing its price pretty much sealed its fate.


As @SimTourist points out, we aren't talking about some cheapo Battle Royale title here, these games cost a lot to make.

GTA V is still commanding more than 50% of its RRP whereas GT Sport can be found for something like 60% off as the norm less than a year later. Whether you drink the CaRPG kool-aid or not, it's hard to ignore that should GT7 be a traditional GT game, it will probably excite the general public more than Sport has.

 

[Imari]

I'd be shocked if GT sport cost more to make than GT5. GT5 had OFFICIAL licensing from WRC, Top Gear and Nascar . On top of that Polyphony had to make a new in-house graphics AND physics engine from scratch for GT 5/6. GT6 most likely carried over the licenses ( and most assets) from GT5. GT sport uses a modified GT5 graphics engine with all the textures being rebuilt from scratch to support PBR . I'v already debunked the lie of returning cars being made from scratch, they were touched up. GT sport does not have WRC/ Nascar /top gear/ or any major licensing deals for that matter. The soundtrack is mostly reused from old games and the licensed music tracks are about half of what they were from Gt5/6 . . Oh and licensing for real world tracks got cut down by 3/4ths since this game doesn't have all the tracks previous GTS made .

GT sport feels very low budget compared to GT5 and 6.

I agree. It feels low budget. On the other hand, the studio is twice the size it was when GT5 was made. That's not free.

I'd recommend revisiting GT5 1.01 as well to remind yourself of what it was. It was a shocking hodge-podge of random content and bugs. It wasn't until Spec 2 that GT5 really started to find it's legs. It was a different kind of low budget feeling, the sort where it feels like a developer has thrown everything they made in without care or polish.

I will give Polyphony props for recognising the futility of the idea of Standard cars. A small but high quality set of content is better, even if it's still not quite what is expected from a AAA studio.

 

[TonyJZX]

I feel that they're stretching what little content they have very very thin.

I do see how its smart to have a street version, a Gr4 Gr3 GrB and then a road going Gr3.

Reviews say this is a negative.

 

[Tired Tyres]

In order to fix this game they would have to change GT-league to turn it into proper races, preferably from a qualifying lap earned grid position, with either a standing start or a double file rolling start to replace the chase the rabbit while dodging the mobile chicanes current mode. That's okay for arcade mode but it has to be different for GT-league otherwise what's the point?

A Gran Turismo Track Pack bringing back the original tracks from the original game wouldn't be a bad idea as that would allow more race variation in all modes.

The trouble is I don't think that would drive extra sales. Perhaps only GT7 could do that.

 

[Imari]

I feel that they're stretching what little content they have very very thin.

I do see how its smart to have a street version, a Gr4 Gr3 GrB and then a road going Gr3.

Reviews say this is a negative.

It is smart. I know this sounds kind of sarcastic, but it's not. It's much the same as the original GT where you had multiple levels of upgrades and a race mod for every car. It provides great flexibility to the player to race the way they want.

Unfortunately, they've used it in such a way as to cover up the profound lack of content. Looking at the GT1 example again, once upon a time all of those would have been counted as one car. Now it's five. And even then the car list isn't exactly massive.

I don't think it's a negative in and of itself, but more that the way it's been abused to try and pad the car list is perceived as a negative. It's rarely received well when you try to sell your customers less and tell them that it's more. There's nothing wrong with selling less at a higher quality, but customers do resent it when you bull:censored: them.

 

[Tornado]

Your post is really fascinating though. Surprised to see GTPSP still being sold at a constant manner.

The Vita was, at least until the Switch came out, technically still alive. Since it was abandoned so quickly by everyone except those making (and wanting) quirky Working Designs-esque niche games, GT PSP holds a reasonable claim as the only high profile racing game available on the platform; and it almost certainly was more enjoyable to play on the Vita as well.

 

[SestoScudo]

The Vita was, at least until the Switch came out, technically still alive. Since it was abandoned so quickly by everyone except those making (and wanting) quirky Working Designs-esque niche games, GT PSP holds a reasonable claim as the only high profile racing game available on the platform; and it almost certainly was more enjoyable to play on the Vita as well.

GT Psp would be more alive if there was more AI cars since 4 cars on a track feels so lifeless to point where its depressing.

 

[Brad464]

It might be considered decent compared to other racers but it's absolutely dismal compared to it's predecessors. Frankly this game deserves to fail. I'm guessing that a large percentage of the 3.3 million buyers were duped, thinking this was a traditional GT game. I don't see GTS having the long legs of previous titles. The cat is out of the bag now and everyone knows it's not the GT we're used to. Outside of the hardcore esports crowd this thing won't be selling many more copies IMO.

 

[pedrocor]

On KudosPrime, there are notes talking about how the statistics are calculated:

Statistics based on 46,605 players representing 4,660,500 players (4,226,800 of the final game) on 2018-05-08.

Where does that 4.2M number come from, and how does it relate to the 3.3M copies sold?

Well, at home, there is my account and my toddler's account, obviously only one copy bought.

 

[sems4arsenal]

The Vita was, at least until the Switch came out, technically still alive. Since it was abandoned so quickly by everyone except those making (and wanting) quirky Working Designs-esque niche games, GT PSP holds a reasonable claim as the only high profile racing game available on the platform; and it almost certainly was more enjoyable to play on the Vita as well.

The Vita can play PSP games? Huhh, makes want to get one now.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Shipped is always > sold through

Therefore it should be GTS sells > 3.4 million, instead of around which insinuates it could be at or lower than 3.4 million.

And, unless you know the exact figures for every other title in the franchise, it could be lower than 3.4 million.

Thus, around.

Inventory being held globally......would not be surprised if it is large.

Why? Because it's an unlikely business decision, or because it suits your argument? How many brand new copies of GT2 are you finding at your local game shop?

GTS has 50,000 or so new players come every week.

Players =/= sales.

Also you might be surprised at how much older titles still sell.

As I'm the Editor, and we've published multiple articles on the figures nearly every time PD has updated its page, no, I wouldn't be surprised.

You'll note @Famine's post here shows no changes in PD's figures for everything other than PSP and 6. If there were sizeable demand, those numbers would be going up.

Yeah the digital deluxe edition of GT Sport offered by far by the most bonuses. That's part of why I got it digitally but also because it is pretty convenient to not have to change the disc

Right? I used to think the convenience of no-disc-changing was a fairly minor thing. But having to swap the handful of PS4 discs I have has, at least once, influenced what game I was going to play. That says more about me than I care for.

 

[KingFrog]

And, unless you know the exact figures for every other title in the franchise, it could be lower than 3.4 million.

Thus, around.



Why? Because it's an unlikely business decision, or because it suits your argument? How many brand new copies of GT2 are you finding at your local game shop?



Players =/= sales.



As I'm the Editor, and we've published multiple articles on the figures nearly every time PD has updated its page, no, I wouldn't be surprised.

You'll note @Famine's post here shows no changes in PD's figures for everything other than PSP and 6. If there were sizeable demand, those numbers would be going up.



Right? I used to think the convenience of no-disc-changing was a fairly minor thing. But having to swap the handful of PS4 discs I have has, at least once, influenced what game I was going to play. That says more about me than I care for.

I'd still like to know how we began to think changing disks was a hassle. I'm guilty of it to, but I spend more time looking for my TV remote/charger than I do swapping disks. I think it because we have the game icon that's present on our console, but its locked behind the disk. whereas in the ps3 -1 days, there was no icon to look at , just the game box in real life.

 

[simsimsheree]

The only metric I ever believed was how many played online...

Back in GT5/6's day, that was easy to ascertain by how many played the online time trials. At the peak of GT5/6, this usually averaged 600,000 worldwide (higher for GT Academy), and by the last of them (when the PS4 had scavenged away a fair number, and the rest had moved on to other games) this dropped to <60,000.

I have a rather nasty feeling PD (or any game maker) doesn't really wants us to know. Hence the difficulty in getting solid non-conjectural numbers on GTS, PC2, AC etc..

But Kudosprime's numbers, even if inflated, certainly seem to bear out how the vast majority play the game very little, seldom online. 75% haven't done one Sport Mode race. In fact, look at the active players for the last week, and GT5/6's 600,000 for their online challenges looks about on par with the 657,000 odd that played GTS last week. Factor in the percentage that doesn't play online, and we can see that the Sport Mode participation by week has dropped from a peak of 260,000 down to about 100,000 now.

So, all in all, it's hard to feel good about those numbers compared to PD's own TT numbers in GT5/6.

What changed? Well, GT5/6 had little competition. AC and PC2 have cut into the base, GTS shipped with a fraction of the content, and Sport Mode penalty bugs have dismayed a lot who want clean racing. PD can't act like they are the only game in town any more. Content development is at a snail's pace, particularly tracks, compared to their competition, their physics and tire package is really starting to compare poorly, and now they seem stuck in a no-man's land of not arcade enough, and not sim enough.

Time for a re-boot, PD. This one's not doing the trick...

 

[KingFrog]

The only metric I ever believed was how many played online...

Back in GT5/6's day, that was easy to ascertain by how many played the online time trials. At the peak of GT5/6, this usually averaged 600,000 worldwide (higher for GT Academy), and by the last of them (when the PS4 had scavenged away a fair number, and the rest had moved on to other games) this dropped to <60,000.

I have a rather nasty feeling PD (or any game maker) doesn't really wants us to know. Hence the difficulty in getting solid non-conjectural numbers on GTS, PC2, AC etc..

But Kudosprime's numbers, even if inflated, certainly seem to bear out how the vast majority play the game very little, seldom online. 75% haven't done one Sport Mode race. In fact, look at the active players for the last week, and GT5/6's 600,000 for their online challenges looks about on par with the 657,000 odd that played GTS last week. Factor in the percentage that doesn't play online, and we can see that the Sport Mode participation by week has dropped from a peak of 260,000 down to about 100,000 now.

So, all in all, it's hard to feel good about those numbers compared to PD's own TT numbers in GT5/6.

What changed? Well, GT5/6 had little competition. AC and PC2 have cut into the base, GTS shipped with a fraction of the content, and Sport Mode penalty bugs have dismayed a lot who want clean racing. PD can't act like they are the only game in town any more. Content development is at a snail's pace, particularly tracks, compared to their competition, their physics and tire package is really starting to compare poorly, and now they seem stuck in a no-man's land of not arcade enough, and not sim enough.

Time for a re-boot, PD. This one's not doing the trick...

PD has less competition today than they had back then. Need for speed ( one per year including the ones by SMS) / Forza MS / Forza horizon/ Grid / Dirt / Motorstorm / I Racing / GTa 5 ( when it launched)

Today there's what? AC / Project cars/ Forza horizon / Forza MS and an every other year NFS?

I already demonstrated that there's LESS racing games today than there was last gen .

By your logic GT sport should have been the best selling GT since the ps4 has 14 racing games and has a bigger install base than when GT5 came out . When GT5 came out the ps3 had like 30 racing games on it.

 

[Sergio18]

Among the competition, the bad image that generated for many GT 5 and GT 6 (no matter what lies, because they are great games), the bad presentation of the game, that famous live show where it looked a bit badly graphically and with lag, the change of style of game, the online allways and the rejection of the nostalgics ... I think they are good numbers

 

[TomBrady]

Right? I used to think the convenience of no-disc-changing was a fairly minor thing. But having to swap the handful of PS4 discs I have has, at least once, influenced what game I was going to play. That says more about me than I care for.

A lot of people I talk to are the same way. It is kind of silly but it's legit. When all you gotta do is tap a button, most of us are more likely to play that game. Especially in my case where my Day 1 PS4 sometimes has trouble ejecting discs but even before that.

I've even purchased games I already own on Disc just because I play them often and didn't want to have to switch anymore. I play killzone more now that I don't have to grab the disc

Also, a lot of the PS Plus games of the last few months were games I already owned, so of course I deleted the disc versions of the games, and downloaded the free digital ones so when I want to play them, I have the more convenient option at no cost to me.

 

[Imari]

A lot of people I talk to are the same way. It is kind of silly but it's legit.

I think it's fairly natural. Give someone an easier way of doing something and it's natural that they'll want to use it. Even if the change is slight. Evolution has to have hardwired this into humans by now, we'd never have gotten anywhere if we didn't have the desire to make our lives easier and better.

 

[ImaRobot]

I already demonstrated that there's LESS racing games today than there was last gen .

No, you really didn't. You posted a bunch of random information with little actual backing to it. You even stated it lists anything with a car as a racing game, so to be honest, you should have stopped right there and not include any of that information. Not only that, you apparently listed every game that has been released through its whole generation, rather than a game that actually came out in a reasonable time frame within the release of the game being compared, let alone the ones that are actually considered to be competition within the actual racing genre.

 

[Doomotron]

You even stated it lists anything with a car as a racing game,

On the PlayStation Store GTA 5 is a racing game.

 

[ImaRobot]

On the PlayStation Store GTA 5 is a racing game.

I wasn't asking.

 

[KingFrog]

I wasn't asking.

I thought I posted the Wikipedia list ( which is comprehensive and accurate AFIK )

I stated I didn't use metacritic since metacritic counts every game with cars as a racing game.

Also let's do simple math . The ps2 lasted 5 years ( say 7 )
So Did the ps3 .
Ps4 is on its 4th year with only 14 ( soon to be 18 ) racing titles
Lets do the math

4.5 games per year .

let's say the ps4 last 7 years

31.5 ( 32)

By the time GT 5 came out the ps3 had around 30 racing games off the top of my head ( 5 NFS / two motorstorms / Midnight club LA / Gt prologue / Dirt 3 / 3 ATv off road games / ridge racer / Pure / Fule/ a few F1 titles / a few WRC titles / ) Not to mention Forza a 2/3 on Xbox 360 which by then had like a 2 million console lead over Ps3 . Iracing also existed back then .

 

[Nuschel01]

I'm guessing that a large percentage of the 3.3 million buyers were duped, thinking this was a traditional GT game. [...] The cat is out of the bag now and everyone knows it's not the GT we're used to.

10 seconds of Google search half a year before release would‘ve shown that GTS was supposed to be a new chapter of GT and that it basiclaly ditched everything from previous titles Your argument is invalid

 

[ImaRobot]

I thought I posted the Wikipedia list ( which is comprehensive and accurate AFIK )

I stated I didn't use metacritic since metacritic counts every game with cars as a racing game.

You posted a list of games ranging from top selling simulators, to games churned out by Indie developers, littered with some that literally aren't even racing games, let alone have any type of similarities with the game's we're talking about. Yet, you're going to use every single one of the games listed towards your count? Again, the information is just too far off base to take it seriously.

Also let's do simple math . The ps2 lasted 5 years ( say 7 )
So Did the ps3 .
Ps4 is on its 4th year with only 14 ( soon to be 18 ) racing titles
Lets do the math

4.5 games per year .

let's say the ps4 last 7 years

31.5 ( 32)

To be honest, I'm unsure how you think you can predict the future and how many titles are coming out. That's not really something you can base off an average.

By the time GT 5 came out the ps3 had around 30 racing games off the top of my head ( 5 NFS / two motorstorms / Midnight club LA / Gt prologue / Dirt 3 / 3 ATv off road games / ridge racer / Pure / Fule/ a few F1 titles / a few WRC titles / ) Not to mention Forza a 2/3 on Xbox 360 which by then had like a 2 million console lead over Ps3 . Iracing also existed back then .

The other problem here is you're using games that came out at the beginning of that generational gap as if they directly where in competition with a game that came out near the end of that generational gap, as if they where going to be in direct competition anymore. It's very unlikely that a games that came out in, lets say 2007 for example, are going to be competing with sales with one that came out in 2011. There are exceptions of course, but you're using the full list as if it reflects that very notion.

It's very unlikely that the first NFS game is going to be competing in any noticeable manner with last GT game of that generation.

 

[Doomotron]

I wasn't asking.

I was referencing the Metacritic scores and 'backing up' @KingFrog

 

[ImaRobot]

I was referencing the Metacritic scores and 'backing up' @KingFrog

Cool, I wasn't confused what you were referencing. I also wasn't disputing the terrible genre-labeling that some website/system has.

 

[Stephen220378]

I'd love to know how many out of the 3.3m actually paid full price for the game. ShopTo.net had it at £17 from the start of and through to the end of January and have been selling it for £19 ever since, Gamescentre here are flogging it for £20 which is pretty dismal for a game just over 6 months old and Sony have put it in several sales on the PS Store since launch which would lead me to believe it just didn't sell well at the start. Usually if a game hits a price that low 6 months into it's lifespan it's an annual release game like CoD or formerly Assassins Creed or a game as I suspect with GT Sport not a lot of people were willing to pay full price for it.

 

[KingFrog]

Cool, I wasn't confused what you were referencing. I also wasn't disputing the terrible genre-labeling that some website/system has.

You're assuming that the only people who bought GT5 / 6 were people interested in sim racers. I could also argue GT sports didn't have ANY competition aside from well nobody, GT sport isn't competing against Forza nor P cars. You are all just in denial about the decline of cars/ motorsports. I guess NASCAR/ F1 viewership declining in the past year is just due to increased competition.

Racing games are racing games, Stop being a sim elitist. This is why the genre is dying because people can't enjoy a damn game without being hounded by sim elitist for playing an " arcade game" .

 

[TonyJZX]

I think its a big rough to compare GTS to something like GTA5 which is a multiplatform multigenerational game that is something like still 2/3 full price 5yrs later... and you can bet they will probably migrate the thing to PS5!

Its an anomaly out there.

Also if you want to go direct comparison to FM7/FH3 - these games I feel have sort of maintained close to full price for a long time... also they have that Win10 Play Anywhere thing which muddies the perceieved 'value'.

Something like FH3 also maintains value but being tied with two DLC which people want to play but not necessarily the main game. They did something pretty unique with Hot Wheels.

Now GT has for the last two iterations dropped price pretty quick in its lifetime.

I cant remember that much about GT5 but that too fell shortly after SPec 2.0 which did bump it up a bit.

To me the value proprosition at launch for full price for GTS wasnt there. So I almost waited until GT6 died before I went in.

 

[ImaRobot]

You're assuming that the only people who bought GT5 / 6 were people interested in sim racers

Quite the opposite really. I’m just saying that you can’t pretend that games that came out at the beginning of a generation are in any way a competitor to games that came out towards the end, nor does that list prove anything substantial since it actually list games that really aren’t even racing games to the same degree, also listing games that where actually indie developed with little to no following.

Racing games are racing games, Stop being a sim elitist. This is why the genre is dying because people can't enjoy a damn game without being hounded by sim elitist for playing an " arcade game

ridiculous, where do I come across as a sim elitist, please point it out to me. I never once mentioned any sim or arcade. What a ridiculous jump for you. I like games, if they’re fun then they’re fine to me.