Sora’s first week on iOS in the US was nearly as big as ChatGPT’s

After rising to the No. 1 spot in the US App Store, OpenAI’s video-generating app Sora has now, technically, had a bigger first week than ChatGPT on iOS, according to new data from the app intelligence provider App figures. Their estimates show 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.

However, this isn’t the fairest comparison, as ChatGPT was only available in the US during its first week, while Sora is currently offered in the US and Canada at launch. Still, Appfigures says Canada contributed about 45,000 installs, so Sora’s launch was about 96% of ChatGPT’s launch, if the data was based on the US numbers alone.

This level of consumer acceptance is worth noting because Sora remains an invite-only app, while ChatGPT was more publicly available at launch. That makes Sora’s performance more impressive.

During its first day, Sora quickly saw 56,000 app installs, making it the #3 top app in the US App Store. It reached No. 1 on Friday, October 3. That rise put Sora’s debut ahead of other major AI app 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 will yield plenty of anecdotes to support Appfigures’ data. Sora videos, which use the new Sora 2 video model and give users the ability to generate realistic deepfakes, seem to be everywhere. Users are even creating deepfakes of dead people, a use case that has prompted Zelda Williams, 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 use since its first day on the market, September 30, 2025. The data shows that daily downloads on iOS reached a high of 107,800 downloads on October 1, 2025. Since then, the app has ranged between a low of 84,400 daily installs (on October 6) and 98,500 daily installs (on October 4).

While that’s not as high as earlier this week, it’s still decent numbers for an app that not everyone can use yet.