Gran Turismo 5’s online races support up to 16 players. This was the series’ first main entry to offer online racing at that scale, making the PlayStation 3 game a major multiplayer step for Gran Turismo.
Released in 2010, Gran Turismo 5 let players meet in online lounges and race rooms, where they could also share cars, parts, photographs and user-created tracks. The 16-player limit applied to online races, not to every multiplayer feature in the game.
A common mix-up is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which had already introduced online racing for up to 16 players. That earlier release was a preview rather than the full numbered game, so descriptions of GT5 as the first entry can sound contradictory: GT5 was the first full main installment, while Prologue had tested the feature beforehand.
The original online service was eventually shut down in 2014, so the 16-player figure describes the game’s historical online capability rather than a service that remains officially available today.