Sora’s first week download numbers were about the same size as ChatGPT’s release

OpenAI’s video generation app Sora technically had more first-week sales than iOS’s ChatGPT after rocketing to No. 1 in the U.S. App Store, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. According to its estimates, Sora had 627,000 iOS downloads in its first seven days of availability, while ChatGPT had 606,000 iOS downloads in its first week.

However, this isn’t the fairest comparison since ChatGPT was only available in the US for the first week, while Sora is currently available in the US and Canada at launch. Still, according to Appfigures, Canada contributed about 45,000 installs, so Sora’s launch would represent about 96% of ChatGPT’s launch if the data were based only on U.S. numbers.

This level of adoption by consumers is remarkable. That’s because Sora is still an invite-only app, while ChatGPT was more publicly available at launch. That’s what makes Sora’s performance even more impressive.

Sora quickly gained 56,000 app installs on its first day and became one of the top 3 apps overall in the US App Store. By Friday, October 3, it reached number one. This jump has already put Sora’s debut ahead of other major AI app launches, including Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot, and on par with the launch of xAI’s Grok.

A quick look at social media reveals plenty of anecdotes that support Appfigures’ data. Sora videos, which use the new Sora 2 video model and allow users to generate realistic deepfakes, seem to be everywhere. Users are even creating deepfakes of dead people, prompting Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, to ask people to stop sending AI-generated images of her father.

According to Appfigures, the app has seen steady adoption since its first day on the market on September 30, 2025. According to that data, daily downloads on iOS reached a high of 107,800 downloads on October 1, 2025. Since then, daily installs have hovered between a low of 84,400 (October 6th) and 98,500 (October 4th).

It’s not as high as it was earlier this week, but it’s still a good number for an app that isn’t available to everyone yet.