Early trends showed a huge jump in demand for mobile phones, appliances, personal electronics and furniture items.
The company said it saw nearly seven lakh concurrent users flocking to the site in the first five minutes.
Buyers who had made up their minds had already stocked millions of products in their carts and wish lists before the sale started to avoid missing out on their chosen products, a company statement said.
"We are very excited to see the tremendous response in the initial hours of the Diwali Unbox Sale. Users have loved the additional, instant discount on Citibank cards. Many more exciting offers are lined up over the next days of the sale," Saurabh Bansal, Vice President, Categories at Snapdeal, said.
The Snapdeal Unbox Diwali Sale will run from October 2-6.
The top selling mobile phones in the first eight hours of the sale were the Samsung J2 Pro and the LeEco Le Max2.
In the first eight hours of the sale, nearly one lakh mobile phones were sold at Snapdeal, translating to nearly 200 phones sold per minute, the statement added.
The three e-commerce majors are all doing discounted sales.
Amazon launched its 'Great Indian Festival' sale on Saturday, while Flipkart's 'Big Billion Day' sale also opened on Sunday.
