Two franchises account for the entire top five of the PlayStation 2’s best-seller list. Grand Theft Auto holds three of those places and Gran Turismo the other two, and no other series comes close.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leads with 17.33 million copies, and five PS2 games passed 10 million against only two on the original PlayStation. Here are the 10 best-selling PlayStation 2 games of all time.
Best-Selling PlayStation 2 Games at a Glance
| Rank | Game | Copies Sold | Released | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | 17.33 million | 2004 | Action-adventure |
| 2 | Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec | 14.89 million | 2001 | Racing |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | 14.20 million | 2002 | Action-adventure |
| 4 | Gran Turismo 4 | 11.76 million | 2004 | Racing |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto III | 11.60 million | 2001 | Action-adventure |
| 6 | Tekken 5 | 9.43 million | 2005 | Fighting |
| 7 | Final Fantasy X | 8.60 million | 2001 | Role-playing |
| 8 | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty | 7.03 million | 2001 | Stealth |
| 9 | Final Fantasy XII | 6.40 million | 2006 | Role-playing |
| 10 | Kingdom Hearts | 6.30 million | 2002 | Action role-playing |
The 10 Best-Selling PS2 Games
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: 17.33 Million
San Andreas gave players three cities and the countryside between them, a map several times larger than Vice City’s, along with character customisation and role-playing elements the series had never attempted.
It is the best-selling game on the best-selling console ever made. Its scale in 2004 was genuinely unusual, and much of what open-world games do as standard now was demonstrated here first.
2. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec: 14.89 Million
Gran Turismo 3 arrived in 2001 as the first entry built for the PS2 and was widely used as the console’s technical showcase. Its car models and lighting were far beyond what the original PlayStation could produce.
It sold nearly 15 million copies despite offering roughly 150 cars, a smaller roster than its PS1 predecessor. Visual fidelity, not content volume, drove those sales.
3. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: 14.20 Million
Vice City moved the series to a 1980s Miami setting and leaned heavily on period music and neon aesthetics. Its licensed soundtrack across multiple radio stations became as recognisable as the game itself.
It arrived only a year after Grand Theft Auto III and sold more copies, an unusually short turnaround for a sequel that expanded rather than repeated the formula.
4. Gran Turismo 4: 11.76 Million
Gran Turismo 4 shipped in 2004 with more than 700 cars and remains one of the largest racing rosters ever assembled. It also added photo mode and a B-Spec mode that let players direct a driver rather than race themselves.
It sold 3.13 million fewer copies than Gran Turismo 3 despite the far larger content, arriving late in the console’s life when attention was shifting toward the next generation.
5. Grand Theft Auto III: 11.60 Million
Grand Theft Auto III is the most historically important game on this list. It took a series that had been top-down and two-dimensional and rebuilt it in fully explorable 3D, effectively inventing the modern open-world template.
Almost every open-world game released since owes something to its structure. It sold the fewest copies of the three GTA titles here while being the one that made the other two possible.
6. Tekken 5: 9.43 Million
Tekken 5 is the best-selling fighting game on the console and returned the series to a more traditional style after the poorly received Tekken 4. It shipped in 2005 with arcade-perfect conversions of the first three games included.
Fighting games were past their commercial peak by then, which makes 9.43 million a striking figure for a genre in decline.
7. Final Fantasy X: 8.60 Million
Final Fantasy X was the first entry in the series with voice acting and fully three-dimensional environments rather than pre-rendered backgrounds. It arrived in 2001 as one of the console’s earliest major role-playing releases.
It also received the series’ first direct sequel, a departure from the tradition of each numbered entry standing alone.
8. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: 7.03 Million
Metal Gear Solid 2 followed the PlayStation original and famously switched protagonists partway through, replacing Solid Snake with a new character in a decision that divided players sharply on release.
Its technical presentation was a generational leap, and its reputation has improved considerably in the decades since, with its themes about information control read very differently now than in 2001.
9. Final Fantasy XII: 6.40 Million
Final Fantasy XII is the newest game on this list, released in 2006 when the PlayStation 3 was already arriving. It replaced random encounters with visible enemies and introduced a programmable combat system.
Those changes pointed toward how the series and the wider genre would develop, though the late release limited its commercial ceiling.
10. Kingdom Hearts: 6.30 Million
Kingdom Hearts combined Square’s role-playing design with Disney characters and settings, a crossover that sounded implausible and worked commercially straight away.
It sold 6.30 million copies and launched a franchise that has continued for more than two decades across many platforms.
Two Franchises Took the Entire Top Five
Grand Theft Auto holds three of the top five places and Gran Turismo the other two. No other franchise appears more than once anywhere in this list.
The three Grand Theft Auto games sold 43.13 million copies between them and the two Gran Turismo titles 26.65 million, a combined 69.78 million from five games. Rockstar and Polyphony Digital defined what the PS2 was for in a way no other studios matched.
Five Games Passed 10 Million
Five PS2 titles cleared 10 million copies. On the original PlayStation only two ever did, and its best seller managed 10.85 million.
San Andreas at 17.33 million sold 60% more than the PS1’s biggest game. The console’s much larger install base explains most of that, and our ranking of the best-selling PlayStation games shows how much lower the ceiling sat one generation earlier.
Nearly Half Arrived in the First Two Years
Four of these games were released in 2001 and two more in 2002, so six of the ten arrived within roughly two years of the console’s launch. Only Final Fantasy XII in 2006 came late in its life.
Early releases had the longest window to sell, and PS2 games kept selling for a decade because the console stayed in production until 2013. A game published in 2001 had twelve years on shelves, an advantage no late release could match.
The Library Shipped 1.54 Billion Copies
Sony shipped roughly 1.537 billion pieces of PS2 software against about 160 million consoles, an average of 9.6 games per machine. These 10 titles account for 107.54 million copies, or about 7.0% of everything sold.
The attach rate is almost identical to the original PlayStation’s 9.4, which suggests buying habits stayed remarkably stable between generations even as the install base grew by more than half. Both figures are far below modern platforms, where a smaller number of blockbusters takes a much larger share, as our ranking of the best-selling video games of all time illustrates.
One British Studio Made the Three Biggest Sellers
Japanese developers built seven of these ten games: Polyphony Digital, Namco, Konami, and Square between them. The other three are all Grand Theft Auto, all made by Rockstar North in Edinburgh.
That single Scottish studio produced 43.13 million of the 107.54 million copies on this list, more than 40% of the total from three games. It is a sharper concentration than the original PlayStation showed, where four Western games came from three separate studios in two countries.
The pattern points to what changed between generations. Japanese studios still supplied the volume, but the console’s defining commercial hits increasingly came from the West, and by the following generation that shift was complete.
How We Ranked PlayStation 2 Games
Games are ranked by lifetime copies sold on the PlayStation 2, using figures reported as of March 31, 2012. Sony ended PS2 production on January 4, 2013 after 13 years, and new games continued to appear through that year.
Because the platform is retired, these totals are effectively final, though the reporting date means late sales in 2012 and 2013 may be slightly understated. Sales on other consoles are excluded, so ports and remasters of these games on later PlayStation hardware do not count toward the figures here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best-selling PlayStation 2 game?
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with 17.33 million copies sold. It is the best-selling game on the best-selling home console ever made.
How many PS2 games sold over 10 million copies?
Five: San Andreas, Gran Turismo 3, Vice City, Gran Turismo 4, and Grand Theft Auto III. Only two games on the original PlayStation reached that mark.
Which franchise sold the most on PS2?
Grand Theft Auto, with three games in the top five totalling 43.13 million copies. Gran Turismo is second with two games and 26.65 million.
When was the PlayStation 2 discontinued?
Sony ended production on January 4, 2013, after 13 years. New games continued to be released through the end of that year.
How many games were sold for the PS2?
About 1.537 billion copies of software against roughly 160 million consoles, an average of 9.6 games per machine.