DayZ has sold 2 million copies since Early Access launch

"WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS ALPHA," warns the DayZ Steam page. "Please do not purchase it unless you want to actively support development of the game and are prepared to handle with serious issues and possible interruptions of game functioning.

In fairness, if you're prepared to deal with a zombie-filled island, limited resources, and a near-psychotic horde of players, what's a few bugs? That may explain why more than 2 million people have chosen to take the game's warning in their stride since the survival FPS launched into Early Access last December, as revealed by developer Dean 'Rocket' Hall last night.

Just over 2 years ago the DayZ mod released. Today, the Standalone game just broke 2 million units in under 6 months https://t.co/o4WjnTs8Bi May 1, 2014

Technically, it's been four and a half months. Or 137 days. In fact, if you really want to wallow in some minutia, the game has sold the equivalent of approximately 10.1 copies every minute since launch. Thanks, maths!

It's not hard to see why it's proved so popular. You just need to look at the stories it can generate. Like the time Twitch collaborated to bring down a ragtag group of PC games writers , or all the bad things Andy did .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.