In case you've not heard yet, worldwide sales of Gran Turismo 5 have hit 5.5 million. The latest title in Sony's long-running series of super realistic driving simulations was released on November 24, to considerable critical acclaim – even though the old bugbears (unconvincing AI and staid crash physics) are still present. Elsewhere, some ridiculed the title's long install time, and others became enraged when massive demand for the online multiplayer modes brought the servers down and led to delays and slowdown. But everything seems to be working fine now.

The impressive GT5 figures mean that the entire Gran Turismo series has now sold over 60 million units, with the original title (10.81m units), Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (14.6m) and Gran Turismo 4 (10.86) the strongest performers so far.

In a day of big sales figures, the NPD Group has also revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops shifted a whopping 8.4m copies in its first month on sale in the US. You can find out more here. Plus, games news site MCV has just published the results of its UK specialist retail survey, which shows that 85% of stores are optimistic about the health of their business going in to 2011.