Every Gran Turismo Game, Ranked

Ah, Gran Turismo. We suspect if you’re reading this that The Real Driving Simulator has played some part in your love for cars, be that kicking off with the PlayStation 1 original or a recent dive into Gran Turismo 7.

With what we think is the third-longest running racing game series (behind Need For Speed and Test Drive, although the latter has had some big gaps) there are plenty of titles in the back catalogue and ranking them is naturally going to spark debate. So, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Just a note, we’re focusing on full GT titles without bringing spin-offs like GT 2000, Concept or the Prologues into this. Perhaps that’s one for another day.

9. Gran Turismo 6

Something had to be the ‘worst’ on the list. Gran Turismo 6 wasn’t a bad game as such, building on the fairly well-received GT5, but arguably didn’t do a whole lot to move the series on.

Sure, it added more cars - just shy of 1,279 in the end compared with GT5’s approx 1,080 - but its career mode wasn’t improved and with no real notable new features. Well, other than that one driving mission on the moon.

Its release timing didn’t help, arriving on PlayStation 3 on 6 December 2013 - a couple of weeks after the launch of the PS4, which had no backwards compatibility.

8. Gran Turismo PSP

It feels harsh putting Gran Turismo PSP this far down the list, as the game has an especially soft place in our hearts, but something had to be here.

The idea of Gran Turismo PSP was mind-boggling at the time. It looked like a version of Gran Turismo 4 made just for handheld consoles and played like it on the track too. The number of cars was great too, with around 800 available at your fingertips.

GT PSP’s problem was its lack of game modes, though. Rather than the traditional Gran Turismo career experience, you were limited to quick races, time trials and solo drift events.

You could collect cars, but there was no upgrade system - presumably the limitations of such a small console restricted it. A shame, as a proper career mode could’ve made this the single greatest GT game ever.

7. Gran Turismo 5

It might be hard to remember now, but ahead of its release, Gran Turismo 5 may have been the most hotly-anticipated racing game of all time. Think GTA VI now, but for mid-’00s car bores.

Following on from Gran Turismo 4 was always going to be a tricky task. That title had widely been hailed as the greatest in the series so far and, with the immense power of the PlayStation 3, expectations were at a high.

Numerous delays didn’t help its case. GT5 was announced in 2006 but it wouldn’t be released until 2010, being hit with numerous delays and the need for a ‘Prologue’ version in 2008 to tide things over.

When it did eventually release, GT5 was met with a strong reception and had some impressive figures to boast - including over 1,000 cars. However, a huge chunk of those were carried over PS2 ‘standard’ car models and the discrepancy in quality was almost painful for some.

Objectively, GT5 was a solid game with a varied career mode and plenty of content to play with. It’s not as fondly remembered as the PS2 titles though, for many failing to meet the high standards a five-year gap in titles had set.

6. Gran Turismo Sport

Until Gran Turismo 7 was released in 2022, there was no traditional GT experience on the PS4. Rather, we had Gran Turismo Sport which took a different spin on the formula.

Visually, it was still a Gran Turismo game and played like one too. Rather than focusing on the ‘buy cheap, upgrade, race and get more cars’ approach of the old games though it instead had a heavy focus on competitive multiplayer racing.

To some, this was a great thing - and Sport quickly became the go-to for many sim racers looking for proper competition. Others lambasted the lack of a proper career mode and upgrade system, although the single-player aspect of the game would gradually be fleshed out through content updates.

By the end, Sport had gone from a barebones multiplayer racing game to a compelling package. With its online services now totally shut off, though, its heyday is well and truly in the past.

5. Gran Turismo 7

Had we written this list at the time of Gran Turismo 7’s release, things could’ve looked quite differently. It launched to a rocky reception, with an unexpectedly short career mode, a fairly barebones multiplayer experience and a loathsome microtransaction integration.

However, over time, Gran Turismo 7 has matured into a pretty spectacular game. At its core, it always had the right ingredients to be a great GT game, with a fantastic handling model, jaw-dropping graphics and deeper car customisation than any before it. It just needed some love, which it has since had.

In time, and surely with more content to be added in the future, it’s possible we’ll look back on GT7 as one of the very best in the series.

4. Gran Turismo

The one that started it all. ‘The Real Driving Simulator’ launched in 1997 in Japan and when it first arrived, it changed the landscape of driving games. Up to this point, Need For Speed was about as realistic as it got - but now suddenly here was a game that really felt like proper circuit racing in anything from sh**boxes to top-end race cars.

Its career mode was, at the time at least, pretty long and the upgrade system was like no game before it. If it wasn’t for Gran Turismo, we wouldn’t have Forza Motorsport or the plethora of hardcore sims that have since followed. Later titles perfected the formula, but the original Gran Turismo remains one of the most significant milestones in video game history.

3. Gran Turismo 2

If Gran Turismo was proof of concept for a realistic racing title, Gran Turismo 2 was the game that would solidify a legacy.

Releasing two years on from the original GT, it refined the core of the game - with near-identical handling and graphics - and perfected it with content. The career mode was much, much deeper than any racing game to this point, let alone the first GT, and having around 650 cars to race was almost unthinkable.

With the PlayStation 2 on the horizon, anything other than perfection could’ve seen Gran Turismo 2 fall into obscurity as a forgotten late-PS1 title. Thankfully, it’s gone down as one of the most revered in the series.

2. Gran Turismo 3

As the PS2’s first Gran Turismo title, expectations for GT3 were large. GT 2000 had shown off the technical prowess of the console, effectively an upscaled version of GT2, but it would need to offer more than just good looks.

Fortunately, GT3 did that. The handling was much improved, the AI (a little) more intelligent and the graphics were jaw-dropping for the year 2001. It was a little light on content and visual customisation was almost non-existent, but the core of the game was sensational. In its own right, it was a sensational Gran Turismo game, but perhaps its best attribute was to tee up the best title of them all…

1. Gran Turismo 4

It had to be, didn’t it? Gran Turismo 4 is the definitive game in the series, and quite possibly the greatest racing game of all time.

It absolutely mastered the task of combining everything before it - the in-depth nature of GT2 and the technical marvel that is GT3 - and bringing even more to the table to offer the most complete GT title to that point, and arguably to date.

Just to skim over the highlights, it came packed with over 700 cars, 51 tracks, added proper endurance races, truly fleshed out the career mode to the point of being almost overwhelming with races and somehow took another leap graphically ahead of GT3.

It was truly ground-breaking, too. It was the first GT game to toy with online play, the first to offer the race engineer-like B-spec mode and the first to be playable in HD. If you want to sum up everything Gran Turismo stands for into one game, this is it.