Forza – 16 million copies
Finally, we reach Forza, perhaps the best-recognised racing franchise by gamers of all ages in 2021. First appearing in 2005 with Forza Motorsport, the franchise has splintered into racing and open-world lines, with eleven Forza-titled entries coming out over the last 16 years.
Why have they only shifted 16 million units? Well, we could say its Xbox exclusivity counts against it but then, the Playstation-exclusive Gran Turismo series has managed over 85 million… Truthfully, it’s the relative youth of the franchise that we’d look toward. It’s for sure the most successful on this list in present day and with a heavy revitalisation on the horizon, pun intended, we’d bet on it climbing a few more places yet.
The best of the rest
What else is in the over-10 million copies club? Trailing Forza by a million units is the seminal Burnout series, which taught a generation how fun smashing up fictional cars in fictional locations could be. Dormant since the fantastic Burnout: Paradise, it’s powerless at present to defend its seventh-place position in the best-sellers against…
Asphalt. If you discount the mobile versions of some games on this list, this is the only mobile-exclusive racing title, in eighth. Shifting over 10 million copies to date, Asphalt is very much alive, with the last entry ‘Asphalt 9: Legends released in 2018.
The final franchise in the 10 million club? Colin McRae Rally, arguably the definitive rally franchise of the early 2000s. Arguably, it lives on in the DiRT series it spawned, that remains today.