Xiaomi today announced that it has sold a staggering 1 million smartphones in India in just 18 days. The announcement comes on the heels of the festive season in India that was marked by various e-commerce players offering discounts and other offers on Xiaomi smartphones.

Considering that Xiaomi’s two major budget smartphones — the Redmi 3S and the Redmi Note 3 — are sold only once a week, this is not a small feat by any means. The Redmi Note 3 has been on sale since six months now, but due to the heavy demand, the handset goes on sale only once a week where it usually sells out in a few minutes. The Redmi 3S, which launched a couple of months ago, has also turned out to be very popular and is sold by Xiaomi once a week.

India has turned out to be a major market for Xiaomi. While the company has been struggling in its home market, China, due to the onslaught from the likes of Oppo and Vivo, it has had a lucrative year in India thanks to the popularity of Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3S. The company is unlikely to beat other Chinese OEMs and Samsung in terms of total smartphone shipments in India though due to the (still) limited availability of its smartphones.

Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun also published a letter thanking Mi fans in India, Hugo Barra, and Manu Jain for the company’s extraordinary growth in the last two years.

The core of the Xiaomi model is creating high-quality products, making friends with our users, and operating our business extremely efficiently. This model has been proven in China. I believe that the Xiaomi model will resonate across the world, starting with India.

I am confident that with the sustained efforts of our entire Xiaomi family, we will be able to capture the largest market share in India within 3-5 years! Mi India, let’s make history together!