"So much for the death of PC Gaming," DayZ creator Dean Hall has scoffed, announcing that the zombie apocalypse survival sim's standalone version--which is still only in alpha--has now sold one million copies, less than a month after launching on Steam Early Access. Yes, sales were at 875,000 copies last week so this isn't a huge surprise, but one million is a nice big round number, and that is a fun jibe from Hall.

Hall revealed the shiny big number yesterday on Twitter.

"Previously with the mod I think traditional publishers could write DayZ off as a kind of anomaly," Hall told Polygon later yesterday, noting that DayZ's top spot on the Steam charts is followed by fellow Early Access survive 'em up Rust. "It was possible to think that this would not fully translate to the retail game in terms of real sales. This has got to be a 'shots fired' moment for those in the traditional publishing model, and their investors."

Even Hall wasn't sure whether it'd be a success, though. "We obviously knew that there was strong interest in the concept, but weren't sure whether that interest was just 'hype' or whether it would actually translate into real sales," he said.

The DayZ alpha is on Steam $29.99. Developer Bohemia Interactive does warn, though, that "We strongly advise you not to buy and play the game at this stage unless you clearly understand what Early Access means and are interested in participating in the ongoing development cycle." (It's quite incomplete and wonky, in other words.)