Gran Turismo 7 falls short of past GT games in UK launch sales

After a long wait, Gran Turismo 7 is finally here, and it lives up to the hype. As the PlayStation’s flagship racing game franchise, Sony has high sales expectations for GT7.

Since launching on 4 March, GT7 has had a strong start, debuting at number one in the UK boxed game charts. But new sales data released by Gfk and compiled by GamesIndustry.bz reveals that it was only the fifth-biggest launch in the franchise’s history when including digital sales.

GT7 is the fifth fastest-selling GT game in the UK

According to GamesIndustry.bz, 57 per cent of GT7’s sales were digital on launch week. When combining digital and physical sales, GT7 was the second-best-selling game in the UK at launch, falling behind Elden Ring.

Overall, yhe new sales data shows that GT7 is the fifth-fastest selling GT game in the UK. 2010's Gran Turismo 5 on PS3 was the biggest UK launch in the series, followed by 2004’s GT4 on PS2, GT2 released on PS1 in 1999, and 2008's GT5: Prologue for PS3. It’s a testament to the amount of hype surrounding GT5 that GT5 Prologue, essentially a glorified demo, beat GT7's sales at launch.

It probably hasn't helped that GT7 launched soon after Horizon Forbidden West, another hugely popular first-party PlayStation franchise, and Elden Ring. PS5s are also still in short supply due to the ongoing chip shortage, which limits GT7’s player base on PS5.

However, GT7 had a much better UK launch than GT6, the last numbered entry released in 2013 on PS3.

Best-selling Gran Turismo games in the UK

As for the best-selling Gran Turismo games in the UK, GT7 has already outsold GT4 Prologue. Despite only being the sixth-best debut for the series when it released in 2001 on the PS2, GT3 is the UK’s best-selling GT game.

Released in 1998, the original Gran Turismo is also the UK’s second best-selling GT game, but only the seventh biggest launch in the series’ history.

GT6, on the other hand, is the worst-selling mainline GT game in the UK. This is likely because GT6 released late in the PS3’s lifecycle in 2013 soon after the PS4 went on sale.

Since the first game launched in 1998, over seven million Gran Turismo games have been sold in the UK, generating £194 million in revenue.