OpenAI’s Sora app saw a highly impressive debut on iOS in the United States, drawing 627,000 downloads in its first seven days nearly rivaling ChatGPT’s 606,000 downloads during its first week. (App intelligence via Appfigures)
How Sora’s Launch Measures Up
While ChatGPT was only available in the U.S. in its opening week, Sora launched in both the U.S. and Canada. Around 45,000 of Sora’s first-week installs came from Canada, meaning its U.S. numbers were close to 96% of ChatGPT’s debut. That’s notable given Sora was still in invite-only mode.
a logged 56,000 downloads, quickly gaining traction to climb to #3 on the U.S. App Store. By October 3, it had reached #1. The momentum rivaled major AI app launches like Claude and Copilot, and even stood alongside xAI’s Grok.
Download Trends & Engagement
Sora’s day-by-day iOS downloads ranged from 84,400 to 107,800, peaking early and holding strong over the week. These numbers reflect strong buzz, especially for an app still in limited rollout. (Appfigures)
Much of the hype comes from Sora’s video features, which enable realistic video generation, including deepfakes. Some users pushed the envelope creating AI-generated content of deceased figures prompting public criticism from individuals like Zelda Williams.
Why This Performance Matters
Pulling off near–ChatGPT levels of iOS adoption while still invite-only is a major signal. It suggests strong market demand, word-of-mouth virality, and effective early traction strategies. For OpenAI, Sora’s success could validate its pivot toward AI-generated media.
Comparisons to ChatGPT raise the bar: can Sora maintain growth as it opens to more users? Long-term retention, safety, content moderation, and technical stability will be critical tests.
What to Watch Going Forward
As Sora expands its availability, key metrics to monitor include retention rates, daily active users, churn, and how users adopt advanced features like video prompts and chaining. Also watch how OpenAI balances creative possibilities with moderation and misuse prevention.
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Curious how video AI tools are evolving? See our post on Top AI Video Generation Tools in 2025.