Sora achieved 1 million downloads faster than ChatGPT

After Sora video creation app from OpenAI It rose to first place On the US App Store, it has now, technically, seen a bigger first week than ChatGPT on iOS, according to new data from the app intelligence provider Application forms. It estimates that Sora saw 627,000 iOS downloads in its first seven days of availability, compared to ChatGPT’s 606,000 iOS downloads during its first week.

Shortly after this article was published, Bill Peebles, head of the Sora project at OpenAI, said, Announce Sora reached 1 million downloads (across platforms, not just iOS) in less than five days. He said it was faster than ChatGPT, even though Sora was in invite-only mode.

ChatGPT was only available in the US during its first week, while Sora is currently available in the US and Canada at launch. However, Appfigures data indicated that Canada contributed about 45,000 installs, so Sora’s launch represents about 96% of ChatGPT’s launch on iOS alone, if the data is based on US numbers only.

This level of consumer adoption is noteworthy because Sora requires an invitation to enter, while ChatGPT was publicly available at launch. This makes Sora’s performance even more impressive.

During its first day, Sora saw 56,000 iOS app installs in a short time, propelling the app to become the No. 3 overall top app on the US App Store, Appfigures said. By Friday, October 3, it had reached number one. This increase has already put Sora’s debut in front of other major AI application 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 back up Appfigures’ data. Sora Videos, which uses the new Sora 2 video model and gives users the ability to create realistic fake videos, seem to be everywhere. Users are Even creating deepfake photos of the deada use case that prompted Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, to ask people to stop sending AI-generated photos of her father.

According to 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 reached 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 4 October).

While this isn’t quite as high as earlier in the week, it’s still good numbers for an app that not everyone can use yet.

This post has been updated after the original posting on October 8 to include new information shared by OpenAI’s Bill Peebles.