Resident Evil 6 ships 4.5 million worldwide

Resident Evil 6 has shipped more than 4.5 million copies in the first week of its release despite conflicted critics. The publisher announced the figures today, saying widespread consumer enthusiasm will propel Resident Evil 6 to becoming its best-selling game ever.

Resident Evil 5 shipped 4.4 million units in its release month of March 2009 according to Kotaku, and Resident Evil 6 already surpassed that number despite releasing just today in Japan and Tuesday elsewhere. Capcom projects the game will sell more than 7 million copies internationally, sonic booming by its previous leader Street Fighter II for SNES, which GamesIndustry International says sold 6.2 million to world warriors after its 1992 release.

Capcom said the RE franchise has all together sold more than 50 million units since it began in 1996, as well as inspiring a major motion picture series. GamesRadar's Hollander Cooper gave Resident Evil 6 a mostly positive review, although overall critical reception to the game has been relatively mixed for a major release (the Metacritic user average, on the other hand, is flat out rancorous at 0.5).