Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that the Gran Turismo 6 demo has been downloaded by more than 1.3 million users.

There were also 765,000 entries for the GT Academy 2013 qualifying time-trial that came from 18 participating European countries.

"The online qualifying demo on GT6 has been very well received and the numbers of entries to GT Academy is phenomenal," said Usama Al-Qassab, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's VP of product marketing.

 "After National Finals the action moves to Silverstone and, of course, these ultra-fast gamers will know exactly where to go having completed so many virtual laps there on the GT6 demo! Real driving starts to take over in GT Academy from National Finals, and we are looking forward to working with Nissan and Nismo as they implement some sophisticated performance tests for the gamers."

Gran Turismo 6 will be released sometime later this year for PlayStation 3.