http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/news/html/e090316.html

Capcom’s First Shipment of “Resident Evil 5” Breaks Four Million Copies!
- The biggest launch of any title in the series acts as a major boost
to Capcom’s performance -

Capcom Co., Ltd. (Capcom) is proud to announce that the first shipment of “Resident Evil 5,” the newest title in one of Capcom’s most popular series, has shipped more than 4 million copies worldwide.

“Resident Evil 5” combines powerful visuals only capable on today’s generation of video game consoles with Hollywood’s film-making skills and technology to create a new sense of fear that arises from the contrast between light and darkness. Thanks to the company’s proprietary engine, the MT Framework, Capcom was able to make “Resident Evil 5” a multi-platform title(PLAYSTATION®3/Xbox 360™), giving a vast number of players the opportunity to enjoy the game. Many players’ expectations were raised by playing through the demo, which was downloaded over 4 million times. This all culminated in the largest first shipment of any title for the series to date.

The “Resident Evil” series is extremely popular, having shipped over 40 million copies worldwide since the first title was released in 1996 (as of March 16, 2009). The series paved the pathway for a new genre, Survival Horror, and even after ten years, the “Resident Evil” series is renowned as one of the most popular video game franchises in the world.

Good news for a good Game.

OMG THAT'S HUUUUGE

Amazing.

That explain why I have seen HUGE amount of copies.

Wow..didn't expect that!

In before VGChartz is off by a factor of 10 :P

Well, if you consider that RE4 was released first on Gamecube, then PS2 and finally Wii, it's really hard to compare.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if RE5 can outsell RE4 lifetime.

Godot - I think it's going to be hard for RE5 to outsell RE4 since it was released on 3 consoles, over a span of 3 years, and multiple price points. RE4, when it launched in America (AFAIK) was just $40, and RE4: Wii was budget priced too.

However, from what I've heard, RE5 is looking to have a pretty great first week worldwide - to the tune of 1.5m between JP+PAL+NA for both systems. That'd put it at 33% of the GC/PS2 version.