Sora Surpasses 1 Million Downloads at Faster Rate Than ChatGPT

According to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures, OpenAI's video generation tool Sora has technically surpassed ChatGPT's first-week performance on iOS after quickly climbing to the top of the U.S. App Store charts. Estimates indicate Sora reached 627,000 iOS downloads in its first seven days, compared to ChatGPT's 606,000 during its debut week.

Shortly after this article's initial publication, OpenAI's Sora lead Bill Peebles announced the app achieved one million downloads across all platforms in under five days. He noted this growth exceeded ChatGPT's pace, despite Sora operating with invite-only access.

sora hit 1M app downloads in
team working hard to keep up with surging growth. more features and fixes to overmoderation on the way!

— Bill Peebles (@billpeeb) October 9, 2025

While ChatGPT was initially limited to the U.S. market during its first week, Sora launched simultaneously in both the U.S. and Canada. Appfigures data shows Canada contributed approximately 45,000 installations. Adjusting for U.S.-only figures, Sora's iOS launch represented about 96% of ChatGPT's initial performance.

This adoption rate is particularly noteworthy given Sora's invite-only requirement, unlike ChatGPT's public availability at launch, making Sora's performance especially impressive.

Appfigures reported Sora gained 56,000 iOS installations on its first day, rapidly ascending to become the third most downloaded overall app on the U.S. App Store. By October 3, it claimed the number one position. This strong debut outperformed other major AI application launches including Anthropic's Claude and Microsoft's Copilot, matching the initial success of xAI's Grok.

Social media observations corroborate Appfigures' data. Sora-generated videos, powered by the new Sora 2 model that enables realistic deepfake creation, have become widely visible. Some users are even creating deepfakes of deceased individuals, prompting Zelda Williams, daughter of late actor Robin Williams, to request people stop sharing AI-generated images of her father.

Appfigures data shows consistent adoption since Sora's September 30, 2025 market debut. Daily iOS downloads peaked at 107,800 on October 1, with subsequent daily installations ranging between 84,400 (October 6) and 98,500 (October 4).

While these figures represent a slight decrease from earlier weekly highs, they remain substantial for an application with limited accessibility.

This article was updated on October 8 with additional information from OpenAI's Bill Peebles following initial publication.