A complete redesign of Polyphony Digital’s website went live earlier today, and with it, the company has updated us on the subject of sales for the second time in 2015. During GT Sport’s first unveiling in Paris, PD had snuck a quick mention of a rough series total into the game’s website. Over 75 million units had been sold as of March 2015, while today’s newer tallies come from September of this year.
The first number most will take note of is Gran Turismo 6’s total. At 4.71 million worldwide, it narrowly beats 2009’s GT PSP, while remaining some way shy of the next-highest title in the series, GT5 Prologue. As GT6 just celebrated its second birthday, it’s unlikely – though not impossible – the game will sell the additional 640,000 or so copies (13.6% of its current total) needed to overtake Prologue. Despite the relatively low numbers versus the rest of the family, it should be noted that no other racing game released since GT6 has sold more, with exception to Mario Kart 8, at 5.87 million as of June 2015.
Of further interest is Gran Turismo 5’s total. Despite the servers being taken offline long ago, the low list price for what is still a massive amount of content no doubt helped GT5 total just shy of 12 million units (11.94). This pushes the 2010 title into second place within the franchise, second only to GT3’s massive 14.89 million.
From a generational perspective, the PS3 titles now total 22 million. The PS2 leads the way with 29.61 million, and the first two games total 20.22 million for the first PlayStation.
See more articles on GT5 Sales, GT6 Sales, and Polyphony Digital.
No actual link to their site in the article? Not a single mention of http://www.polyphony.co.jp/people/ ?! Boo
Hopefully these less-than-ideal sales figures will lend Polyphony to rethink their marketing strategy and game design for future titles.
Can’t wait for GT Sport, it’ll keep us busy while we wait for GT7 :)
Just saying, Gran Turismo Sport IS GT7.
No one racing game on the PS4 is not as good as the GT6. GT6 is the best one!
You realize you just said with your first sentence that every racing game on the PS4 is better than GT6 right?…lol.
That’s awesome! Congrats to PD! Last time I read about GT6’s sales, it was a little over 2 million copies. I really think the game has taken on a second life in the past year or so too. I know a lot of friends who have a PS4, and whatever racing game, and still return to GT6 to get their real fix. As everyone has established, the game itself is much, much better than it was at launch. So props to them to keeping their heads down and making a good game better. Considering it’s not so preferable launch time, in the mist of the next-gen consoles, to hear GT6 still outsold any other competitor is a true testament to the game. Anyways, happy holidays and I can’t wait until GT SPORT’s release.
Not that numbers matters (to me), but 4,71m is quite a lot for a driving game and let’s forget those 9+mil GT5 sales,since they were more an exception,than realistic sales number for driving game.
So, Love it or hate it , it sold well and sales wise no driving game, but FM4 (a long time ago) come close in sales numbers.Good work PD and keep GT rolllin’.
its actually 12mil sales for gt5
It would be nice if the article included the link to the official sales page:
http://www.polyphony.co.jp/products/
I am not a GT hater. I started with GT1 and have had every major installment.
I have been pulled in by Project Cars. I like the dedication to racing cars. I like the ability to tune each wheel and regulate tire pressure, brake pressure and ventilation. I like the gauges that reflect that radiator settings are keeping the engine from overheating.
I have to negotiate my way around the bugs in PCars. There are some major ones to deal with. Their replay module is broken when compared to GT’s level of performance.
Force feed back can be an issue in PCars. But SMS gets it when it comes to driving a car.
GT never felt like a racing simm. And it’s level of realism is now questionable. What GT excelled in was giving the customer plenty of car options. And being faithful to the history of the vehicles it put in the game. GT1 through GT4 were the best games of their sort ever created. And they paved the way for the multiple franchises that are around today.
No one has ever bettered the GT driving license testing. I remember it being so challenging that many were crying to have it watered down. For me that made the game worth learning and playing. Imagine not having full access to exotic cars before you are able to drive by the rules and actually handle a racing car?
So I already have my PS4 (two years) and am waiting to see if PD and Kaz can resurrect the beast that was once the Gran Turismo label. They need to become more of a simulator than they currently are. They need to inject realism into the game. Not to mention the sounds and perhaps a GT Academy story line to go with the license tests?
I want GT Sport/GT 7 to be a monster success. But I want more real driving. More racing and a wider verity of cars from all countries. I like the offerings from Japan. But I’d like more GT3/2 cars and sports cars from different countries. Koenigsegg Agera R anyone?
I’m rooting for PD. But I hope they realize they have serious work to do.
And I hope they stop making promises that they can not keep.
As the months go on I feel that the negativity for GT6 sales and popularity seems to be getting less as facts and figures have become available – I truly believe the amount of sales that have happened must surely exceed the break even point, and really this is the point that truly matters. I really wonder how many of the “GT6 haters” are not going to buy the succeeding GT titles – and would they admit? I think not. Whichever way you look at it, except in comparison to previous GT titles, GT6 has been a success, they still have their name, they still have popularity as a whole, they will have still made money and this is with a rehashed GT5 on an old platform – My prediction for the eventual GT7 is that it will leave the competitors attempts to steal their market in their wake. Really, who that owns a PS4 will not buy a GT7, I mean they kind of go hand in hand… For me I will be very happy to buy GT7 and make my own mind up!
@rono_thomas I can tell you very clearly, I bought all previous GT titles without trying the game, blindly, in advance. But with GT7 I will definitelly first wait until others try it, gather some data, and only if it’s good, then I’ll buy it. I won’t rush with preorders. That’s a fact. I was die hard GT fan, since 1997, but now everything (sadly) changed. I wish it was the other way around, but it’s not.
@Y2F – What constitutes as good for you? Would you buy it if it stacks up against what is available elsewhere? I get it that you have reservations because of whats gone before but there must be a part of you that wants it to be good?
Everyone wants it to be good. It’s their track record that leaves a bad taste in everyones mouth. But with so much racing games coming out, or already released recently, they have to show that they are still here. Name and popularity will take a long time to die down, I mean look at COD, they don’t change a thing and get so much flak all the time. Regardless of that, they’ll release a title every year, and everyone will still buy it. That doesn’t mean it’s a good game.
With your comparison though, it’s success should very well be compared by it’s past, just as much as it should be to other games. You can’t assume it’s a success because it sold better then some other game, yet it’s down 50% from other titles they’ve released. That’s not to say we should completely ignore sales, but rather to couple that with what actually released, and if they achieved what they told us.
@Imarobot I don’t think that a comparison between previous titles is a fair way, nor is it giving a true representation of what is successful today – sales trends as a whole only tell you anything when you compare to the similar of the same era/time. Sales trends buck and change due to many external variables from the “credit crunch”, to us living in a time of Austerity, to the market shares being diluted to more choice – comparing it to its past is like saying when I was 17 I could run the 100m in 10.5sec but now I can’t compare myself to another 17y/o at the age of 30+. Just that simple comparison rules out the variable of my age. All I can say is I used to be faster – so comparing something to previous sales is just only useful as saying they used to sell more. The only comparison to judge how successful something is to judge it against its direct competition. So it is a fair assumption that its the most popular therefore the most successful game of its time that it occupies.
The only issue I can see here is that if consumers continue to buy GT even when they are not happy with its progress, and the numbers they use to compare things show that it is still successful – then why change something if it aint broke?
That’s why I said it is up to a couple of factors as well, not just that solely. I agree that there is alot of unknown variables concerning the situation, but the market wasn’t diluted back when the game released, there wasn’t really any competition on the consoles concerning this genre, hell the PS4 wasn’t even released yet so there wasn’t really competitors for the title. This year is the rise of the genre, and NOW it’s diluted by choice. Comparison to the past is and should be a good and valid use, as it shows you the rise/decline and shows what they did good. Should it be used to dictate the future? No, but it should not be ignored whatsoever. Success isn’t measured by what the competitor is doing, nor do high sales number dictate success either because we have no idea what it’s budget was, and if it broke even or not. Would it still be considered a success if they had a loss of money on this iteration, even with the amount of sales it has now?
As for your example. If you kept progressing and have kept in the sport for a while a kept your self conditioned and ready, then you can very well keep up with that 17y/o. If you start slacking and lose your figure, start eating horribly, don’t exercise, and generally just make bad health decisions, then it’s no wonder that you can’t keep up with that 17y/o anymore. It’s obvious the decisions that you made over the years is a direct result of that. So it’s completely viable to look back to see what you used to do back then, and compare it to what you do now(good or bad.) You can’t just use the fact that you are obviously older, as a reason as to why you aren’t as good anymore.
GT7 will sell much better now because many gamers choose PS4 rather than Xbox One. I think that GT7 will hit 10 mln barrier.
all GTs can get to hit the 10m mark if they are propperly made and with a propper marketing :D. Take for example GT3, hitting the 15m mark back in 2001, any other racing game got to hit that numbers ’till now, not even COD gets to hit that much, only San Andreas got to overpass GT3, but GT3 still was a bonecrusher for many games. So basically PD, Kaz, and Sony have to do the same they did 14 years ago with GT sport, and GT7, using today’s strategies (Beta, free DLC, Bundles, special console build, etc). In that way, GT7 not only will be the best GT ever, also the best racing game ever created! :D
At least 4 of the Call of Duty games have sold 20+million units. Call of Duty MW3 is the best selling game on the PS3 console, Black Ops is second and MW2 is 4th.
This is very POOR result…2.5x times less than GT5, and over 3x times less than GT3. No wonder why numbers are so low compared to their previous titles….the game has many bugs, some of which (like broken top speed physics) were never fixed and won’t be fixed ever again. What are they thinking about their next game? Do they naively hope that somehow it will magically sell well? When you are going down, you are going down and nothing will stop the fall.
I think maybe you missed the news post from a few months ago when the sales figures for the top driving games were laid out for people to compare.
They had all made far less sales than previous versions – excepting first time entries like pCars of course, but even those titles selling were lower quantities than people thought. GT6 was doing better than the rest, even then something like 2.59 million, so more than 2 million have in fact been sold since…and you say that nothing will stop the fall?
*sold lower quantities* – sorry about that…
@MeanElf “Worse example” is not an example. I don’t care how much others, who make worse games, sell. They should look at their product and why is it going down.
I think you are still missing the point. It’s not something that PD isn’t doing, it’s just a general trend across all racing titles. If it were something that PD was doing incorrectly, then why are pCars, Forza 6 et al not faring better?
@MeanElf Because pCars and Forza 6 aren’t making good enough racing games. And PD is starting to make similar games like they do, i.e. going down. They had advantage, and they are losing it. It’s not like every year, every user must buy racing game no matter if it’s good or bad.. If there are no good games, there won’t be lots of sales.
Truth is, there are good games out there: Driveclub, pCars and Forza 6 as well as Forza Horizon 2 all have plenty of people who enjoy playing them. The downward trend is coming from two fronts from what I’ve seen: less people playing games and niche titles in particular; then there are the diehards who are becoming older and therefore grumpier, less tolerant in their old(er) age.
None of those things have anything to do with production choices or the myriad of issues involved in making a modern game.
@MeanElf I would say that while you are right, that it is effecting the whole racing genre, but you are also completely ignoring the short comings of the game just because of that. Things they’ve done in 5, as well as things not done in 6 no doubt added to the fact that the sales are lower then the other iterations. This game will always sell like hotcakes regardless, as it’s riding a wave just like COD is doing.
@YZR, the thing is, it’s not that these companies aren’t making good games, it’s completely opposite. They are making good games while PD is simultaneously getting softer. Pcars was great, although littered with bugs on the Xbox One. However, it has definitely earned it’s spot in this small niche. Forza, while they had a slump, they have all but rectified it with this recent iteration, and hopefully its a trend that PD will follow.
Respectfully: I have not ignored any shortcomings as I do not feel that GT6 has anything that in all honesty, I would call such.
Things missing (not that I can think of much) in GT6 as opposed to GT5 is something that has been debated back and forth and from all angles – it’s a subjective thing as some agree, whilst others see the bigger picture and so have accepted that. I don’t think that the vocal minority here are therefore a real factor in the point I was making – sorry.
You don’t think that top speed being off by 10% or more, camber not working and the worst AI in all of sim racing is a shortcoming in a simulation?…lol. I wonder what could qualify as a shortcoming then since one would assume that offline racing and physics are the foundations of a game like Gran Turismo.
I wasn’t talking about things missing from one iteration to the next, I also wasn’t just talking about it’s technical shortcomings either. I was more or less talking about the lack of actually following along with any sort of deadline they set up for them selves. Broken promises, and delivering way too late. That is definitely a shortcoming, and that is definitely something that I feel you are ignoring.
All of these things should not be excluded when taking into consideration how much of a drop this iteration has made in comparison. They definitely dropped the ball with PR this go, and hopefully they’ll realize that.
That was for MeanElf right above me..lol.
I know, I wasn’t replying to your comment :P
@JP – a shortcoming that I would consider as such, would be consistently failing to deliver night racing, dynamic day/night cycles and weather. The AI never bothered me that much as I just picked a lower PP car and challenged myself successively. I will say that it’s a shame the seasonal challenges in GT6 didn’t have the PP bonus thing that GT5’s seasonal events had.
@I’maRobot – agreed that the communication could have gone far better. I’m not sure though that many gamers would have checked into that beforehand though – not judging by the amount of comments from people who clearly don’t look into what a game is strong on or what audience it’s aimed at.
Okay, some of the more intelligent may well have looked into that aspect first, though by that point, assuming certain people were hanging back to see, the fact that all other racing games are (still) suffering equally low sales returns, sort of negates all other arguments surrounding the whys and wherefores. I mean, no one game will ever gain 100% of the market simply because it’s impossible to cater for every type/taste/wish-monger amongst the racing interest group. Now though, even if a game does well, it seems that what PD with GT6 has achieved is pretty much the pinnacle at this moment in time.
I call as witness the game Driveclub to the stand. Evolution Studios have built an unprecedented amount of support in the regular communication area and by sticking to their monthly update promises, plus adding a huge amount of inexpensive DLC they have won over something like 4 million purchases…also at a very good reduction price. See what I’m saying? The best case scenario currently out there with all of the communication and promise-glue you could want, still isn’t getting any more than GT6.
I love both games, for different reasons. TL:DR – I still don’t think it would have sold much more if all of the requirements were met.
Since it’s a “fact” that, “all other racing games are (still) suffering equally low sales returns”, I can assume you have some official sales figures to back up that claim right?
Read the news article from a while ago where the sales for each of the games were cited. I’m surprised at you not having read that seeing as you always butt in on everyone’s conversations.
And with that, I’m done talking to you and your attitude. You are on my ignore list for a reason, after all.
Using bluster to cover up the fact that you have no facts…lol…well done.
Looking at all of the franchises, GT6 is at 4.71 million units.
Forza 5 and Horizon 2 COMBINED is somewhere just over 7 million units. (couldn’t find specific numbers for either. I assume somewhere around 3.5 mill for each)
Driveclub is at 2 million as of August 28, 2015.
Project Cars is at 1 mill as of June 5 2015.
There’re your numbers, Johnny. As up to date as possible.
Appreciate it Obelisk – those were the ones I was meaning :)
JP should have known those figures himself, and I was not going to pander to his bludgeon style of repartee by replying.
All I see are numbers on a page, and some of them are admittedly assumed (aka made up). I can put numbers on a page as well, I was looking for an official source and some context that the sales of other franchises are “equally low”, given that this estimation is in reference to market conditions “at this moment in time”. Since PCars and DC are new games, we have nothing to estimate how well they are doing in any historical context like we do for GT so bringing up their sale figures is pretty much irrelevant. The only one that really matters for the purposes of historical comparisons is Forza, but comparisons are sketchy because F5 was released on a brand new console with a zero install base.
So where did the picture of the Bugatti at Sarthe some from?
Polyphony’s updated website.
I knew it would have sold more than the bullshit Vgchartz stated.
For any other franchise 4.71 mill would be remarkable. For GT it’s rather meh and I’m sure they are disappointed. Hopefully GT7+GTSport returns the franchise to it’s former sales glory. The more financially successful the GT series is, the better it is for the entire genre.
Especially since gt5 sold 11.94 during its run
I’m with you for the second part, a strong GT franchise will always be good for the genre :tup.
However I have to disagree with your sales analysis, no offence meant.
Considering it was released so closely to a few big releases, not only other games, but two Next Gen consoles. And during a time of some pretty big financial problems across a fairly sizable portion of the planet, I’d say they didn’t do too bad at all :)
Congrats PD and Kaz.
Bad is only taking into consideration the budget. It looks like a fine number, just like he pointed out, but for this franchise it is drastically low. Each iteration is hovering around the 10 mil mark, so this is a big drop, and something they are definitely going to notice.
If they barely broke even, that is not necessarily a good thing. However, the good news is that I feel that they’ve noticed their shortcomings and they look to at least have the idea to take some things into consideration. Hopefully they stick to promises they can keep.
Exactly. One can’t measure GT5 sales against other games because it isn’t other games. It has established a high standard and when it fails to meet that standard for the first time in 15 years it’s an issue. Like any game of business venture, the budget is based on an expectation of a certain number of units sold. If they continue in the 4-5 million range you can bet they won’t be spending $60-80 Million per game like they did with GT5. It’s in everyone’s best interest, including the sim racing genre as a whole, for the next full game to sell as many units as possible, hopefully back into the 8 figure range.
4.71Mill is not too bad for game that launched severely incomplete. Most games barely hit that mark anyways.
How many have Forza 5 and Horizon 2 sold in total? Last I heard, they barely popped 2 million together. Seems like GT6 was a massive success, but everyone left it about 3 weeks after launch.
Yea, really incomplete without those Vision GT cars and track editor app / sarcasm
BSpec, Course Maker, Data Logger, Community and Club Features and more were all absent at launch. I believe that’s what Siren is referring to. Outside of the career and hotlapping that’s a huge chunk of the game for most veteran players.
and while we’re whingeing:
No Top Gear track
No gifting of cars to other players
No El Capitan Track
(although I am happy they did finally give us back Midfield)
I also misread the initial press releases and though the data logger/course maker would allow you to drive a road in real life and capture it for the game. That would have been really cool: I know lots of fun roads that while you can drive them at maybe 60% late at night would be really fun to run at pace.
I think there’s a real gap where they could use satellite and airplane imaging and topographic data to make city maps for racing. Racing your commute to work, replaying the route for “un rendez-vous” in Paris, the possibilities go on….
@radix023 I also thought it was mentioned at some point there would be a feature to enable a gps track of a real road to be mapped into the game.
The other feature I thought was teased was the K&N suspension tuning rig.
I think there was some confusion early on an some GTP’ers were assuming you could use any GPS device and record data but IIRC from News items, the official position from PD was always that it will be used only with certain cars.
They said this before launch “Additionally, in another update we will add the possibility to generate a track by capturing the GPS coordinate data of a mobile app while you are driving that course,” the official website reads. “This GPS-generated tracks will be available in the game as playable content.”
So me like plenty of others read that as you can generate courses based on where you drive yourself by using GPS app on our phone. That never happened.
You’re right, I’d forgotten about that. Somehow in time it morphed into the Sports Drive Logger available from Toyota and only available on a handful of tracks.