The feat was achieved in just over ten years and four months. The original Gran Turismo launched in December 1997, while the seventh installment in the series, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (pictured), debuted in Japan in late 2007 and worldwide this year. It has shipped two million units to date.

"Initially, Gran Turismo was an alternative racing game, kind of an outsider in the genre," said Gran Turismo producer Kazunori Yamauchi. "And we made it thinking that it would be okay as long as it reached out to the select few who would agree with us. So this figure - 50 million units - is simply astounding.

“I would really like to thank all the fans who have supported the Gran Turismo series over the years, for all their passion and love of the game. We"d like to continue making every effort to create cutting edge, high quality games, so that we don"t disappoint anyone"s expectations."