Weird visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club has smashed the one million download mark.

Developer Team Salvato announced the milestone on its website, thanking press and YouTubers for covering the title.

The game is free and launched on September 22nd on PC, with a Steam release following on October 6th. The game is available for free, but comes with a pay what you want model.

"The fact is that all of you took a risk putting Doki Doki Literature Club in the spotlight – it’s not often that visual novels and/or romance games are given the treatment that you gave it," lead developer Dan Salvato said.

"It runs the risk of dividing your viewership or not having enough people interested to have justified your time investment. I recognise that you may have had to ask yourself that before putting DDLC in the spotlight, and that’s why I’m extra appreciative towards everyone who went through with it.

"Here on my end, I’m doing my best to keep up with everything business- and development-related so that I can give the community more of what they want. It’s all very new and strange to me, so I’m still growing into it, and I greatly appreciate all the support everyone has given me these past couple months.

"I hope to continue to work on cool stuff that the Doki Doki Literature Club community can enjoy. While I don’t have anything to announce right now, I’m considering some options for providing more Doki Doki Literature Club-related content to fans in the future. I want to do my best to continue giving the Literature Club the attention it deserves while I work on my next game."

The title represents yet another success story in the visual novel space; earlier this year Christine Love's BDSM comedy game Ladykiller in a Bind broke even, months before the developer anticipated.