Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 has become the company’s fastest-ever selling smartphone, with six million shipped, reports South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo.

A Samsung executive is quoted as saying that by the end of April, the South Korean company had supplied four million Galaxy S4 handsets to operators around the world. As the Galaxy S4 was only released on 26 April, these units were shipped in just five days.

The company took 85 days to ship three million S1 devices, and 55 days for the S2. It took 21 days to reach the 3 million mark with the S3.

By the end of last week, more than six million Galaxy S4s had been sold, with the company predicting it could break the 10 million barrier as early as the end of this month.

Although the Galaxy S4 has made rapid progress, Apple’s most recent iPhone 5 saw two million pre-orders in the first 24 hours in which it was available, with first weekend sales passing the five million mark.