DuoLingo, the mobile app for language learning, has seen the number of users around the world accessing its Irish-language lessons pass over the million mark.

On the app’s website, moderator AlexInIreland, whose work on the Irish language section accounts for more than half of the course content, revealed the news in a post.

Over on the website, Alex writes: “Dia daoibh, a chairde, I am here to inform you of a massive milestone just reached by the Irish course. That is, of course, 1,000,000 learners!

“This number blows my mind every time I think about it. I mean, 1,000,000 people is hard to even start to comprehend! What is even more mind blowing is that this number was reached in just over a year!”

To put the numbers into perspective, Alex compares the number of Irish DuoLingo learners topping the one million mark as being compared to the capacity of 12 Croke Parks, slightly less than the population of Dublin, or seven time the number of native speakers of the Irish language.

It has also been a very good year for DuoLingo, which announced in June that it had raised $45m (€40m) in capital and was valued at $470m (€416m), with Google becoming a key investor in the company.

The app and website’s popularity has been linked to the constant user attention it requires, as well as how it has gamefied its language-learning interface in an attempt to encourage learners to keep coming back for more.