Wipeout (stylised as wipE′out″) is a 1995 racing video game developed and published by Psygnosis for the PlayStation. The first installment in the Wipeout series, it was a launch title for the PlayStation in Europe. It was ported to MS-DOS, followed by the Saturn the next year. Psygnosis' parent company, Sony Computer Entertainment, re-released the game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable via the PlayStation Network in 2007.

Set in 2052, players compete in the F3600 anti-gravity racing league, piloting one of a selection of craft in races on several tracks around the world. Unique at the time, Wipeout was noted for its futuristic setting, weapons designed to slow opponents and its marketing campaign designed by Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic. The game features original music from CoLD SToRAGE, with tracks by Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, and Orbital appearing on some versions. The game was critically acclaimed on release; critics praised the game for its originality and its vast "unique techno soundtrack", but it was criticised for its in-game physics. It is followed by a sequel, Wipeout 2097/XL, released in 1996. Alongside its successor, it is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time.

Wipeout is a racing game that is set in 2052, where players compete in the F3600 anti-gravity racing league. The game allows the player to pilot one of a selection of craft in races on several different tracks. There are four racing teams to choose from, and two ships for each team. Each ship has its distinct characteristics of acceleration, top speed, mass, and turning radius. By piloting their craft over power-up pads found on the tracks, the player can pick up various weapons and power-ups such as shields, turbo boosts, mines, shock waves, rockets, or missiles. The power-ups allow the player to either protect their craft or disrupt the competitors' craft.

There are seven race tracks in the game, six of them located in futuristic versions of countries such as Canada, the United States and Japan. After all tracks have been completed on the Rapier Championship, a hidden track (Firestar), set on Mars is unlocked. Wipeout features a multiplayer mode using the PlayStation Link Cable, allowing two player to race against each other and the six remaining AI competitors. The game also supports the NeGcon, a third-party controller designed by Namco.

Wipeout was developed and published by Liverpudlian developer Psygnosis (later known as Studio Liverpool), with production starting in the second half of 1994. According to Lee Carus, one of the artists, Wipeout took 14 months to develop, and the concept began as a conversation between Nick Burcombe and Jim Bowers at a pub in Oxton, Merseyside. Bowers then started on a concept film which was shown around Psygnosis' offices. It proved popular, and Wipeout was approved and production began. An early demo video was shown at the April 1994 European Computer Trade Show (ECTS). The marketing and artwork were designed by Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic in Sheffield. Aimed at a fashionable, club-going, music-buying audience, Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic created art for the packaging, in-game branding, and other promotional materials. A non-playable CGI film mock-up inspired by the game appeared in the teen cult film Hackers (1995), in which both protagonists play the game in a nightclub.

The team was under pressure, as it consisted of around ten people, and they were on a tight schedule. Carus stated that the code had to be rewritten three quarters of the way through development, and that the team was confident that they could complete the game on time. The vehicle designs were based on Matrix Marauders, a 3D grid-based strategy game whose concept was developed by Bowers and released for the Amiga in 1990. Burcombe, the game's future designer, was inspired to create a racing game using the same types of 'anti-gravity' vehicles from SoftImage's animation of two ships racing. The name "Wipeout" was given to the game during a pub conversation, and was inspired by the instrumental song "Wipe Out" by The Surfaris. Designing the tracks proved to be difficult due to the lack of draw distance possible on the system. Players received completely random weapons, resembling Super Mario Kart in their capability to stall rather than destroy opponents. Burcombe said that Wipeout was influenced by Super Mario Kart more than any other game.

Wipeout gained a significant amount of controversy on its initial release. A marketing campaign created and launched by Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic included an infamous promotional poster, featuring a blood-stained television and radio presenter Sara Cox, which was accused by some of depicting a drug overdose. Next Generation printed the ad with the blood erased; the magazine staff explained that not only had they been under pressure from newsstand retailers about violent imagery in games magazines, but they themselves felt the blood added nothing to the ad other than shock value. The poster branded Wipeout "a dangerous game", with Wipeout's lead artist Neil Thompson suggesting—and designer Nick Burcome denying—that the "E" in Wipeout stood for ecstasy.

Wipeout was first released alongside the PlayStation in Europe on 29 September 1995. It was the PlayStation's best-selling launch title in Europe. The game was released in the United States in November. The game went to number one in all the format charts, with over 1.5 million units of the franchise having been sold to date throughout Europe and North America. Wipeout was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1996 by Tantalus Entertainment. Because the company behind the PlayStation, Sony, owned the applicable rights to the last three tracks of the PlayStation version's soundtrack, new music was added for the Saturn version by Rob Lord and Mark Bandola. The Sega Saturn version was released by Sega in North America, despite being a direct competitor of Sony.