Sora hits 1 million downloads in under 5 days, beating ChatGPT’s launch record

OpenAI’s latest app, Sora, has exploded out of the gate. In less than five days, the short-form AI video generator hit one million downloads, racing past the early growth pace of ChatGPT and claiming the top spot on Apple’s App Store.

Bill Peebles, head of Sora at OpenAI, shared the milestone on X late Wednesday, calling out the team’s scramble to keep up with demand.

“Sora hit 1M app downloads in <5 days, even faster than chatgpt did (despite the invite flow and only targeting north america!)! team working hard to keep up with surging growth. more features and fixes to overmoderation on the way!” Peebles shared the milestone in a post on X.

Launched late September, Sora lets users generate short videos simply by typing a prompt. It’s currently invite-only and available exclusively on iOS, but those restrictions haven’t slowed its momentum. In fact, the app climbed to No. 1 in Apple’s App Store within days of launch, signaling a wave of curiosity and experimentation from early users.

Sora Becomes OpenAI’s Fastest-Growing App, Surpassing 1 Million Downloads on Apple’s App Store

The rollout hasn’t been without controversy. Sora’s debut has sparked a growing backlash from copyright holders who say the platform is being flooded with videos that feature protected characters and content.

According to CNBC, videos on the platform show users creating characters from popular shows such as “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Rick and Morty,” and “South Park.”

The Motion Picture Association issued a sharp warning, saying “videos that infringe our members’ films, shows, and characters have proliferated on OpenAI’s service.” MPA CEO Charles Rivkin urged OpenAI to act quickly: “OpenAI needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue. Well-established copyright law safeguards the rights of creators and applies here.”

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, responded by saying the company plans to give rights holders more control over character generation. Speaking at the company’s DevDay event, Altman acknowledged that some users are already frustrated with Sora’s restrictions but asked for patience. “Please give us some grace,” he said. “The rate of change will be high.”

Sora’s early growth mirrors the viral adoption that pushed ChatGPT to the mainstream, but it also highlights the new legal and creative tensions surrounding generative media. OpenAI is moving fast to scale the app while figuring out how to handle a flood of user-generated content that blurs the line between inspiration and infringement.