Xiaomi Mi 8 series hits 1 million sales in just 18 days

Xiaomi is in a celebratory mood after announcing that it has sold over one million Mi 8 smartphones in less than a month. The Beijing-based firm’s global spokesperson Donovan Sung confirmed the impressive achievement on Twitter (via Gadgets360), noting that the Mi 8 series hit the milestone after just 18 days on the market.

The Mi 8 debuted in China on June 5 and immediately drew a fair bit of attention due to a number of marked similarities to another popular phone made by a certain company from Cupertino, California. Despite (or perhaps because of) the iPhone X-inspired design, however, it appears that the Mi 8 has been a hit with consumers in Xiaomi’s home market.

The Mi 8 series consists of the regular Mi 8 flagship, a special, more expensive Explorer Edition with an in-display fingerprint sensor, a transparent design, and 3D face recognition technology, and finally a cheaper variant with a mid-range Snapdragon 710 SoC, the Mi 8 SE.

The one million sales figure accounts for sales of all three models which start from 1,799 yuan ($281) for the Mi 8 SE, all the way up to 3,699 yuan ($577) for the Explorer Edition.

Comparisons have immediately been drawn with the similar success of the OnePlus 6 — another breakout flagship killer from a fellow Chinese OEM that hit the one million mark after 22 days. It’s worth noting, though, that the OnePlus 6 is available internationally, while the Mi 8 series has yet to launch outside of China.

What do you make of the Mi 8’s success? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.