The game was developed by Gameloft's Barcelona Studio which also made Asphalt 8: Airborne, and co-developed Asphalt Xtreme with Gameloft Madrid. The game uses the Bullet physics engine and the Jet game engine. Continuing the tradition from Asphalt 8, the game features licensed soundtracks with a few removed due to their licenses being expired.

The first rumors of Asphalt Legends began back in 2016, with Gameloft posting pictures on Twitter, showing Gameloft Barcelona making a map that had not been seen in Asphalt 8: Airborne. The game was scheduled to be released in the summer of 2017 according to Gameloft's press release, and the name was going to be Asphalt 9: Shockwave. In February 2018, Gameloft was doing a live Q&A with one of their community managers at Gameloft London, where he responded to questions about Asphalt 9, and said that he was not allowed to comment on the future of the Asphalt series. Four days later, however, a trailer was revealed for Asphalt 9. On April 1, 2016, Gameloft posted an April Fools joke trailer on their Facebook page that the game was going to be called Asphalt 9: Foolspeed, a game that revealed outdated footage of Asphalt 4: Elite Racing.[5]

The game was first released for iOS as a soft launch on February 26, 2018, in the Philippines, then in Thailand on March 22, 2018. It was later released for Android as a soft launch, on May 17, 2018, in the Philippines. Pre-registration for the worldwide launch began on June 29, 2018. Around the same time, people could pre-register the game on the Google Play Store. On July 24, 2018, Gameloft announced the game's release date, July 26, 2018, on a Facebook and YouTube Livestream. However, the game was released a day earlier than planned. When the game was released worldwide, it reached 4 million downloads across all platforms in less than a week.

On June 6, 2019, Gameloft announced that the game would be available on Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2019. There is a mode where players can play offline with friends and family with different controllers but it needs to have to earn a certain amount of career flags to unlock Offline Mode. There are Joy-Con and Touchscreen controls when using the Switch in Handheld Mode, allowing use of either the screen itself (akin to mobile devices) or use of the controllers.

A version for macOS Catalina was released on January 17, 2020. An Xbox One and Series X/S version was announced in April 2021 and it was released on August 31, 2021. An arcade adaptation, developed by IGS and Wahlap Technology under a license from Gameloft, was released worldwide in 2021 under the name Asphalt 9 Legends: Arcade DX.

A Steam version was announced in July 2022 and was released on August 2, 2022.

Gameloft announced that the game received an expansion update on July 17, 2024, featuring cross-play compatibility, dynamic lighting for the game's graphic engine, brand new UI and an all-new Singapore track.[13] The expansion also changes the title of the game to Asphalt Legends Unite, and the game also released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, marking the series' return to the PlayStation consoles since Asphalt: Injection.[14] However, Gameloft announced on July 16, 2024, that the Nintendo Switch version of Asphalt Legends Unite initially delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, and later released on August 19, 2024.

Starting from the Legacy of Speed update (released on 24 July 2025), Gameloft discontinued the Unite branding and retitled the game to Asphalt Legends.