''WRC'', short for ''World Rally Championship'', is a

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

series. Licensed from the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

organization, games in the series through 2025 were developed by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports ...

and published by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

. EA, who had acquired Codemasters in 2021, opted to suspend further development of the series in April 2025, leading to the WRC organization to license the rights to further WRC games through Nacon by May 2027. The series is currently developed by

and published by

. To date, a total of seventeen main games have been released, with the latest game released on 3 November 2023.

History

The first series was published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

who owned the WRC license in the early 2000s. These titles were all made by British developer

Evolution Studios Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean So ...

between 2001 and 2005. The series consists of five original games released exclusively for the Sony

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

console, and one

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

for the Sony handheld PSP, all based on the World Rally Championship seasons from 2001 to 2005, using official drivers, cars and locations. The license then remained dormant until 2009 when Italian publisher Black Bean Games signed a four-year licensing contract. The second series then followed, which included five games published by Black Bean Games and developed by Italian developer

Milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

between 2010 and 2013. These included four official WRC games based on seasons from 2010 to 2013, as well as a licensed arcade title, all of them released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

. In July 2013 the license was picked up by the French publisher Bigben Interactive. Bigben hired Paris-based developer Kylotonn to work on the third series of games, which started in 2015 with '' WRC 5'' and continued with '' WRC 6'' in 2016, '' WRC 7'' in 2017 and '' WRC 8'' in 2019, based on the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 World Rally Championship seasons. All four were released for Microsoft Windows,

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

. A port of WRC was released for Android titled ''WRC The Official Game'' on Play Store on 4 December 2014.

WRC Promoter GmbH WRC Promoter GmbH is a media company based in Munich, jointly owned by Red Bull GmbH and KW25. The company is responsible for all commercial aspects of the World Rally Championship and European Rally Championship. History Following the former me ...

extended its licensing agreement with game developer Kylotonn until 2022, with '' WRC 9'', '' WRC 10'' and '' WRC Generations'' all confirmed to be released on the new-generation

Xbox Series X The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

and

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

platforms.

acquired the exclusive license for WRC games in 2020, to start for games in 2023 and for five years after, with its planned first game to be released in 2024.

were put in charge of a partnership with Codemasters after the latter's acquisition by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

in 2021. In May 2025, it was announced that Codemasters had stopped development on future WRC titles, with ''EA Sports WRC'' being the last under the license. The

announced in May 2025 that they gave the rights to WRC video games to Nacon, who will create a complete reboot of the series with the first game planned in 2027.

Games

Main titles

Spin-offs

Release history

''World Rally Championship'' (2001)

''World Rally Championship'' was released for PlayStation 2 on 30 November 2001 in Europe and 21 March 2002 in North America. The game features FIA licensed cars, stages and drivers from the 2001 season and has a career mode allowing the player to work through the

season. The game also features damage simulation in the form of visual damage as well as performance damage if the player crashes.

''WRC II Extreme'' (2002)

''WRC II Extreme'' is the sequel to ''WRC World Rally Championship'' and was released for PlayStation 2 on 27 November 2002 in Europe, and 24 April 2003 in Japan. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2002 WRC season. It also includes "extreme" cars designed by the teams. The main soundtrack to ''WRC II Extreme'' was produced by

the Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture. Originally known as The Dust Brothers, th ...

. Additionally, the tracks " Come with Us/The Test" and " Star Guitar" from the Chemical Brothers album, '' Come with Us'' (2002) were also used in the game.

''WRC 3'' (2003)

''WRC 3'' is the second sequel to ''WRC World Rally Championship'' and was released for PlayStation 2 on 21 November 2003 in Europe, and 27 May 2004 in Japan. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2003 WRC season. It also contains Extreme and Concept cars, designed by the teams.

''WRC 4'' (2004)

''WRC 4'' is the fourth installment of the ''WRC World Rally Championship'' series and was released on 22 October 2004 in Europe and 7 April 2005 in Japan. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2004 WRC season. It also contains Extreme cars designed by the teams, S1600 cars and Group N4 cars.

''WRC: Rally Evolved'' (2005)

''WRC: Rally Evolved'' or ''WRC5'' is the last of the series for the PS2. It was released exclusively in Europe on 28 October 2005. The game includes teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2005 WRC season. It also contains Extreme and Concept cars designed by the teams, S1600 cars and

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

cars from the 1980s.

''World Rally Championship'' (2005)

In 2005, British game studio

Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own games, it grew in profile through developing game ...

and SCEE developed a new ''WRC'' title for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

based on ''WRC: Rally Evolved'', which had recently been released on the PS2. The PSP

was jointly released by

(EU), Spike (JP) and

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

(NA) on 18 November 2005 in Europe, 9 March 2006 in Japan, and 18 April in North America. It is known as ''WRC'', ''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship'' and ''World Rally Championship'' in the UK, Japan and the US, respectively. Like its predecessor, ''World Rally Championship'' is based around the 2005 season and features 30 fully deformable 2005 WRC, Evolution and Extreme spec cars. In ''championship'' mode, players have the opportunity to play through the entire WRC season as any one of the 17 official 2004 registered drivers from the six official manufacturers, participating in 16 official rallies spanning five continents and 16 countries. Additionally, there are 19 bonus stages and

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

that was available to users. In addition to ''championship'' mode, there are also ''quick rally'', ''time trial'' and ''single rally'' single-player game modes. ''World Rally Championship'' also supports various

ad hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...

multiplayer modes, such as ''wireless time trial'', ''turn-based time trial'', ''turn-based single rally'', and ''turn-based championship''. However, unlike the PS2 version, the PSP remake does not include damage simulation, though visual damage to the vehicle can be seen.

''WRC FIA World Rally Championship'' (2010)

''WRC FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on 8 October 2010 in Europe and 14 April 2011 in Japan. It was the first game to be officially licensed by the WRC since 2005's ''WRC: Rally Evolved'', and is also the first official WRC game to be released on Xbox and PC. It features the official cars, drivers and co-drivers from the 2010 season and from the three support classes:

Production World Rally Championship The FIA Production car World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested mainly by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and ...

, Super 2000 World Rally Championship and Junior World Rally Championship. A downloadable car pack, featuring Group B rally cars from the 1980s, was released on the day of the game's release.

''WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2011)

''WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on 14 October 2011 in Europe and 16 February 2012 in Japan. It is the second installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2011 season, including support categories.

''WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2012)

''WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 and PC on 12 October 2012 in Europe. It is the third installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2012 season, including support categories.

''WRC Powerslide'' (2013)

''WRC Powerslide'' was developed by Milestone srl and released on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. As of April 2016, the game has been taken down off from the PSN, XLA, and Steam stores.

''WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2013)

''WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC and PlayStation Vita in October 2013 in Europe. It is the fourth installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2013 season, including support categories.

''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2014)

''WRC : FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the Nintendo 3DS in December 2014 in Europe, with versions for iOS and Android releasing in the following year. It is the official video game of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2014 season. It was the first WRC released on a Nintendo console.

''WRC 5'' (2015)

''WRC 5'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, PC and Xbox One in October 2015. It is the first installment on next generation consoles and was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. WRC 5 is the official video game of the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2015 season, including support categories, and a total of 400 km of stages. It is the first WRC game for eighth generation consoles. This game featured British

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...

's song "

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

" in its intro. The game reached number 10 in the UK physical sales chart, and number 10 in the downloads chart.

''WRC 6'' (2016)

''WRC 6'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 7 October 2016. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. ''WRC 6'' is the official video game of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2016 season. The Toyota Yaris WRC test car was made available as a pre-order DLC.

''WRC 7'' (2017)

''WRC 7'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 26 September 2017. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. ''WRC 7'' is the official video game of the 2017 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2017 season.

''WRC 8'' (2019)

''WRC 8'' was released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC on 10 September 2019. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. ''WRC 8'' is the official video game of the

2019 World Rally Championship season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

, featuring cars and rallies from the 2019 season.

''WRC 9'' (2020)

''WRC 9'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 3 September 2020.

and

Xbox Series X and Series S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

were launched on 12 November 2020, with the Nintendo Switch version available on 11 March 2021. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. ''WRC 9'' is the official video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2020 season.

''WRC 10'' (2021)

''WRC 10'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S and PC on 2 September 2021. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Nacon. ''WRC 10'' is the official video game of the

2021 World Rally Championship season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, Numeral (linguistics), numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest Positive number, positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in o ...

, featuring cars and rallies from the 2021 season.

''WRC Generations'' (2022)

''WRC Generations'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S and PC on 3 November 2022. It was the last WRC game developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Nacon. ''WRC Generations'' is the official video game of the 2022 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2022 season.

''EA Sports WRC'' (2023)

regained the WRC license in 2020 (which in turn being acquired by

in 2021); following this, it was rumored in 2022 that work on ''Dirt'' games had been suspended. On 1 September 2023,

confirmed that the next game will titled ''

EA Sports WRC ''EA Sports WRC'', also known as ''EA WRC'' or simply ''WRC'', is a racing video game developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports. It holds the official licence (acquired by Codemasters in 2020) of the World Rally Championship and is po ...

'', with a full reveal taking place on 5 September. The game was released on 3 November 2023.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = background:#ccccff , list= {{Evolution Studios {{Milestone srl {{Kylotonn {{Codemasters {{Electronic Arts Electronic Arts franchises Nacon franchises Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises Video game franchises introduced in 2001 *