Sora Surpasses 1 Million Downloads Faster Than ChatGPT
In a remarkable debut, OpenAI’s video generation app, Sora, has climbed to the top of the U.S. App Store, reportedly outpacing ChatGPT in its first week on iOS, according to insights from app analytics company Appfigures. Their findings indicate that Sora achieved 627,000 downloads on iOS within its initial seven days, exceeding ChatGPT’s 606,000 downloads during its launch week.
Soon after this article was released, Bill Peebles, the head of Sora at OpenAI, confirmed that the app reached a significant milestone of one million downloads (across all platforms, not just iOS) in under five days. He emphasized that this achievement was faster than ChatGPT’s, even considering Sora’s invite-only status.
During its launch week, ChatGPT was only available in the U.S., while Sora was introduced in both the U.S. and Canada. However, Appfigures’ data noted that Canada contributed roughly 45,000 installs. If focusing solely on U.S. numbers, Sora’s launch represented about 96% of ChatGPT’s initial iOS performance.
This exceptional consumer response is noteworthy, especially since Sora operates on an invite-only basis compared to ChatGPT’s free access at launch, adding to Sora’s impressive performance.
On its launch day, Sora quickly garnered 56,000 iOS installs, propelling it to the No. 3 position among Top Overall apps in the U.S. App Store, as reported by Appfigures. By Friday, October 3, it had ascended to the No. 1 spot, marking a more successful debut than other notable AI applications like Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot, and rivaling xAI’s Grok launch.
A quick look at social media reveals numerous accounts that support Appfigures’ data. Videos generated by Sora utilizing the new Sora 2 video model to create realistic deepfakes appear to be common. Users have even made deepfakes of deceased individuals, prompting Zelda Williams, the daughter of late actor Robin Williams, to ask people to cease sending her AI-generated images of her father.
Appfigures reports that Sora has sustained a robust adoption speed since its market inception on September 30, 2025. Data shows that daily iOS downloads peaked at 107,800 on October 1, 2025. Although daily installs have fluctuated since then, they have seen lows of 84,400 on October 6 and highs of 98,500 on October 4.
While these figures may not match the highs of earlier in the week, they still indicate impressive performance for an app that remains largely unavailable to the general public.
This post was updated after the original publication on October 8 to include new information shared by OpenAI’s Bill Peebles.
