OpenAI’s Sora app for AI videos is a viral hit, even though it is currently invite-only and limited to users in the United States and Canada at launch. On its first day, Sora saw 56,000 downloads and was ranked as the number three top overall app on Apple’s United States App Store, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. By Friday, October 3, it had become the number one app on the United States App Store, placing it ahead of Google Gemini and OpenAI’s own ChatGPT.
Firm estimates indicate the Sora iOS app pulled in a total of 164,000 installs during its first two days, September 30th and October 1st. This day-one performance puts Sora’s debut ahead of other major AI app launches, including Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Copilot, and places it on par with the launch of xAI’s Grok. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini iOS apps had somewhat stronger launches, with each reaching at least 80,000 downloads on their first day.
Since Sora remains invite-only, this may not be the fairest comparison. It is possible the new video app could have attracted even more installs if it were open to all users. Despite this restriction, it is a fairly strong showing for the new release, indicating significant consumer demand for AI video tools that offer a social networking-like experience.
To compare Sora’s early success to other AI apps accurately, Appfigures ran an analysis that only looked at the other apps’ United States and Canadian downloads. This is because different AI apps on the market have pursued different launch strategies. For instance, ChatGPT initially launched on iOS limited to United States users, while Grok limited its iOS-only release to the United States, Australia, and India. Anthropic, meanwhile, did not indicate there were geographic restrictions when it first brought its Claude app to iOS last year.
For a more direct comparison, Appfigures crunched the numbers to focus only on each app’s United States downloads, plus those in Canada if the app was available there at launch. This analysis found that ChatGPT and Gemini had larger launches than Sora, with 81,000 and 80,000 day-one iOS downloads respectively. Sora tied with Grok for day-one installs at 56,000. It easily beat out the launches from AI apps Claude and Copilot; the former pulled in 21,000 day-one downloads, while the latter only saw 7,000.
Sora also hit the United States App Store’s top charts, becoming the number three overall top app by its second day. For comparison, ChatGPT reached number one on its second day, while Grok was number four, Gemini was number six, Copilot was number 19, and Claude was number 78. This post was originally published on October 2, 2025. It was updated to reflect the app’s higher ranking on Friday.