OpenAI’s latest offering, Sora, made a significant impact upon its launch, achieving remarkable download figures and climbing to the top of Apple’s U.S. App Store. The app, which focuses on creating AI-generated videos, got off to an astounding start of 56,000 downloads on its first day alone. Such an impressive showing represents a formidable entrance into the increasingly competitive AI application space.
In fact, by the end of its second day, Sora rocketed to the top of the App Store. It beat even big name apps such as Microsoft’s Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude, which only amassed 7,000 downloads on their respective release days. Sora’s debut set it far above long-time rivals ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, and more, cementing it as the dominant player in the space. By the end of its first two days, Sora had brought in a breathtaking 164,000 installs. This staggering number serves to underscore its meteoric rise and explosive popularity with users.
Sora first rolled out with invite-only access, and only to users based in the U.S. and Canada. Even with these limitations, it still reached a remarkable adoption rate, equal to xAI’s Grok, which captured 56,000 downloads on its first day. Grok experienced only 21,000 downloads when cited by an outside source, showing that Sora’s launch was much stronger. On day two, Sora took control on top. At the same time, Copilot was able to grab third place overall, demonstrating just how close this competitive field can be.
As of this Friday, October 3, Sora was still holding strong at No. 1 in the U.S. App Store. This brand new app is booming at an incredible pace. On a positive note, I think it reveals how much people want new, better, cool AI tools for creative industries. Though Sora has gotten off to an impressive early start, much more work lies ahead. In the larger app ecosystem, though, Gemini is only No. 19 and Claude a paltry No. 78.
