The newly released demo of the next installment of Resident Evil franchise was downloaded by over 1.8 million people in its first week of availability.

Microsoft has managed to sign a deal with Capcom to secure one week of exclusivity. The demo was made available on Xbox Live, starting with January 26 and in the first three days over 1.3 million people has rushed to download it.

Until January 29 the demo was available only to the Xbox Live Gold members.

With these figures, Resident Evil 5 has become the most downloaded demo in the fist week of availability, surpassing the previous record, which was held by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Resident Evil 5 was already released in Japan, where it goes under the name of Biohazard 5. The US and European launch date is set for March 13.  Resident Evil 5 demo contains two new levels of single- and two player co-op play.

Capcom hopes to sell at least 3.5 million copies of Resident Evil 5, for both PS3 and Xbox 360. The demo will be soon available on PS Network.