OpenAI's Sora Video App Hits 1 Million Downloads, Outpacing ChatGPT

Sora hit 1M downloads faster than ChatGPT | TechCrunch

After OpenAI's video-generating app Sora surged to the No. 1 position on the U.S. App Store, it has now, technically, experienced a bigger first week than ChatGPT on iOS, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. Its estimates show that Sora saw 627,000 iOS downloads in its first seven days of availability, compared with ChatGPT's 606,000 iOS downloads during its first week. Shortly after the publication of this article, OpenAI's head of Sora, Bill Peebles, announced that, across platforms, Sora reached a million downloads (across platforms, not just iOS) in under five days. He said that's faster than ChatGPT did, despite Sora being in invite-only mode. ChatGPT was available only in the U.S. during its first week, while Sora is currently offered in the U.S. and Canada at launch. Still, Appfigures data indicated that Canada contributed about 45,000 installs, so the Sora launch was about 96% of ChatGPT's launch on iOS alone, if the data had been based on the U.S. numbers only. This level of consumer adoption is worth noting because Sora requires an invite to get in, while ChatGPT was publicly available at launch. That makes Sora's performance more impressive. During its first day, Sora saw 56,000 iOS app installs in short order, bumping the app to become the No. 3 Top Overall app on the U.S. App Store, Appfigures said. By Friday, October 3, it reached No. 1. That surge had already put Sora's debut ahead of other major AI app launches, including Anthropic's Claude and Microsoft's Copilot, and put it on par with xAI's Grok launch. A quick scan of social media provides plenty of anecdotes that support Appfigures' data. Sora videos, which uses the new Sora 2 video model and gives users the ability to generate realistic deepfakes, seem to be everywhere. Users are even creating deepfakes of dead people, a use case that has prompted Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, to ask folks to stop sending her AI-generated images of her father. Per Appfigures, the app has seen steady adoption since its first day on the market, September 30, 2025. Its data indicates that daily downloads on iOS hit a high mark of 107,800 downloads on October 1, 2025. It has since seen between lows of 84,400 daily installs (on October 6) and 98,500 daily installs (on October 4). While that's not quite as high as earlier in the week, it's still decent numbers for an app that not everyone can yet use.

OpenAI's Sora has already hit more than 1 million downloads

OpenAI's social AI video-generating app, Sora, has reached over 1 million downloads in fewer than five days since its launch. That's according to Sora head Bill Peebles, who said on Wednesday that Sora racked up downloads faster than ChatGPT did at launch despite being an invite-only app. The company launched its new Sora app for iOS on September 30th, giving users the ability to scroll through a feed of AI-generated videos, as well as create ones of their own using OpenAI's new Sora 2 model. It also lets users insert the likeness of themselves or a friend into an AI video with a "cameos" feature. My colleague Hayden Field found that the app is filled with memes, OpenAI employees deepfaking themselves, and what can only be described as AI-generated slop. Already, the Sora app has sparked backlash after users began generating copyrighted characters in circumstances far from brand-friendly, leading OpenAI to give those copyright holders more control over their content. The company has started letting users specify how their likeness is used in Sora as well. "Team working hard to keep up with surging growth," Peebles said. "More features and fixes to overmoderation on the way!" The Sora app is only available in the US and Canada for now, and currently sits at the top of Apple's App Store.

OpenAI's Sora hit 1 million downloads in less than five days

Bill Peebles, head of Sora at OpenAI, shared the milestone in a post on X late Wednesday. He said Sora reached 1 million downloads even faster than ChatGPT, the company's popular AI chatbot that supports 800 million weekly active users. Sora allows users to generate short videos for free by typing in a prompt. The app is only available on iOS devices and is invite-based, which means people need a code to access it. Despite these restrictions, Sora has climbed to the No. 1 spot in Apple's App Store. "Team [is] working hard to keep up with surging growth," Peebles wrote. Sora's launch has also sparked intense backlash, namely around whether the app infringes on copyrights. CNBC viewed videos on the platform that included characters from shows like "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Rick and Morty" and "South Park," and was able to generate many characters independently.

OpenAI's Sora AI Video App Hits 1 Million Downloads

Sora, OpenAI's app for creating AI-generated video, has been downloaded more than one million times. OpenAI's Sora lead, Bill Peebles, shared the information on social media network X last night. Peebles said that Sora hit one million app downloads even faster than ChatGPT did, with interest in the app soaring despite the fact that it's invite only and only available in the U.S. and Canada at the current time. Sora was released at the end of September. It's designed to generate AI videos using realistic videos of real people and their friends. Each user uploads a "cameo" or short video, which they can then use with AI prompts. The app includes an option for users to share their cameos, allowing select people or anyone on Sora to generate AI video with their likeness. Sora has been criticized for producing AI slop, but that hasn't affected its popularity. It continues to be the top free app on Apple's App Store. Sora uses OpenAI's Sora 2 video generation model that can handle complex movements for realistic, cinematic, and anime-style video. Sora 2 supports generating audio, so all the video creations on Sora are accompanied by sound. OpenAI designed Sora to display content based on people the user follows or interacts with, and the app polls users regularly on their wellbeing. There are controls to modify what's displayed in a feed, and OpenAI says that it is meant to be used with friends, which is why it's invite only. Sora is free to download, and OpenAI is not restricting video generation to subscribers for now. [Direct Link]