So, remember when ChatGPT launched and everyone collectively lost their minds? Yeah… it’s happening again.
OpenAI’s new video-generating app, Sora, just exploded to #1 on the U.S. App Store, pulling in a ridiculous 627,000 downloads in its first week. That’s almost as big as ChatGPT’s debut week — which hit 606,000 installs on iOS.
Now, we’ve said this before, but this time we thought — let’s actually put the numbers down so you can see firsthand just how wild it really is. Because when you see the figures, it honestly puts Sora 2’s growth into perspective.
Here’s the deal: ChatGPT was U.S.-only when it launched, while Sora dropped in both the U.S. and Canada. But even if we adjust for that, Appfigures’ data shows Sora’s U.S. numbers still make its first week 96% as big as ChatGPT’s launch week. And that’s with Sora being invite-only. Like, you literally need an invite to use it — yet it’s still dominating the charts.
According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, Sora racked up 56,000 installs on day one, rocketing straight to the #3 spot on the App Store. By Friday, October 3rd, it hit #1 overall.
To put that in perspective — that’s faster than other big-name AI launches like Claude, Copilot, and even Grok.
But where things really blew up was online.
Scroll through social media right now and you’ll see Sora 2 videos everywhere. Some are jaw-droppingly cinematic and unreal — others are just… well, creepy.
Netizens are really pushing boundaries, even making deepfakes of dead celebrities. Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’ daughter, actually had to tell people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her dad. Yeah. It’s that viral.
Appfigures’ data shows Sora’s daily downloads peaked around 107,000 on October 1st, then leveled off to a still-impressive 84,000–98,000 installs per day.
For an app not everyone can access yet — that’s massive.
So what does this all mean? Two things:
First, OpenAI is still the undefeated heavyweight in the AI space.
And second — AI video is officially the next big thing.
If this is what Sora can do in week one… imagine what happens when everyone gets access.
Tried Sora 2 yourself?
Drop a comment and tell us what you think — we’d love to hear your take!
