Longest-running racing videogame series

Out Run (Sega, 1986 to 2015) is the longest-running videogame series ever, spanning 30 years as of March 2016. The game was first released in arcades in 1986 and sold more than 20,000 cabinets in the first year. The latest game in the series, 3D Out Run (Sega, 2015) remastered and enhanced that version for the Nintendo 3DS and was released in 2015.

Producer Yu Suzuki says the only official sequel to Out Run was OutRun 2, which was released in 2003. The others, he says, were unofficial, despite bearing its name. At the same time, he also refers to Out Run as a driving game rather than a racing game.

Spanning 19 titles across 25 years, the previous longest-running racing franchise was the Test Drive series. Test Drive (Accolade, 1987) began the franchise’s marathon journey on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and DOS platforms, and Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends (2012, Evolved Games) marks its most recent appearance, released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.