Niko Bellic's coming to violent America saga shows universal appeal with nearly half a billion dollars in worldwide sales.

On Wednesday morning, Take-Two Interactive, publisher for Rockstar Games, announced that its Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) had sold nearly 6 million units worldwide and earned an estimated retail value of over $500 million in the first week. The announcement makes Grand Theft Auto IV the most successful entertainment launch for both day one and first week sales. The game earned a retail value of over $310 million on the first day of sales. For comparison, Halo 3 earned $170 million in day one U.S. sales and roughly $300 in its first week of sale.

"We knew Grand Theft Auto IV would break new ground in terms of the player's experience, with its compelling story line, extraordinary gameplay and action that ranges over a broad urban canvas. Now, it has broken sales and rating records as well. Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date. We congratulate the entire Rockstar team on creating a must-have experience that takes the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise to a new level," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two.

The launch of the fourth iteration of the violent game, which lets gamers control a character that consorts with prostitutes, drug dealers, kingpins along with performing jack jacking, shooting people and running down players, has met the ire of parent and anti-violence groups despite being a clearly Mature-labeled game. While groups have protested the game's content, it appears that the gaming masses have decided that Grand Theft Auto IV is exactly the type of entertainment they want.

Will you buy GTA IV?