Yeah GTA `1 and 2 were nothing special.

It was with 3 and the 3D sandbox that it became huge. It was a very innovative game for its time, but in retrospect it was overhyped. GTA games get boring quite fast once the novelty fades.
3 also had a plot about the italian mafia in the US. Its alot more appealing than the thug stories we got after that.

Haven't played either (yet) but I watched an interesting documentary about it by GamerSpawn a few weeks ago

HUGE!

Every guy at my college knows and played the first GTA.

Not very. Bayonetta level at much

I will be more clear...

Rockstar Games was what you guys call indie studio today and launched a game called Grand Theft Auto for PlayStation 1 and PC in 1997... the game created a new genre in the videogames based in the "Freedom".

The game was best seller in UK and was a commercial success.

Rockstar Games changed after the success of GTA to became a huge developer.

GTA 2 was created.

After this sequel nothing in the videogame was like before... it is not only commercial success, and big sales... it was a phenomenal...

GTA 2 was the biggest game for Rockstar... not GTA 3 ... GTA 3 was the biggest 3D sequel because everybody wanted to play GTA 2 in 3D... so the huge success of GTA3 was created by the phenomenal GTA 2.

The series didn't get noticed by me until GTA3 but if you look at the sales numbers the first two games did really good.

About sales it is easy....

GTA Franchise > 114m

GTA3 + GTA:VC + GTA:SA + GTA:LCS + GTA:VCS + GTAIV = ~92m

GTA + GTA2 + GTA:CW + GTA:EFLC
I'm sure GTA1 + GTA2 sold more than 10 million easily.

GTA II was the most popular... GTA III became popular because GTA II... everybody wanted GTA III because GTA II.

Where I lived not too many people really knew about it. Driver was the big game. Interestingly enough GTA 3 really didn't do too much more than Driver, but because it let you run over people, it was a huge game changer. Now there's no more Driver franchise :/

I played GTA 1 when it came out, but I don't remember it being big amongst my friends...1997 was year of Diablo, Fallout, Age of Empires, Tomb Raider 2, Quake II and Riven: The Sequel to Myst, among others, so I can see how it got mostly unnoticed...though I do remember my brother playing it like there's no tomorrow...