OpenAI’s Sora Loses Its Top App Store Ranking to Dave’s Hot Chicken

Since its launch September 30, OpenAI’s Sora app Dominated the iOS App Store charts, thanks to its effortless AI video generation and initially loose explanation Copyright law. On Friday, its reign came to an end. Your new champion is … Dave’s Hot Chicken.

Yes! no chatgpt or Gemini or thread Or any of the other usual suspects. Dave’s Hot Chicken now rules the App Store, where its squinty-eyed, bug-eyed mascot icon makes its ascent a fitting surprise. How does it do it? How did it break the hold of OpenAI’s golem TikTok? With something people love even more than big language models: free food.

“They’re running a promotion for free sliders in celebration of Drake’s birthday,” said Adam Blacker, PR director at app analytics firm Aptopia. “Free food always drives downloads.”

If you’re wondering what Drake has to do with any of this, he invested in the fast-casual restaurant chain in 2021 and likely made a mint when the company sold a majority stake to private equity firm Roark Capital. Report $1 billion. For the third year in a row, the company gave away one (1) free slider to anyone who downloaded the app in honor of Drake’s birthday. (The rapper and Raptors fan turns 39 today; the gift was Thursday.)

“We’re celebrating a celebrity that’s popular and relevant right now, and getting food in people’s mouths,” said Leon DaVoan, Dave’s Hot Chicken Chief Technology Officer.

And it really is a lot of people. A typical week, Davoyan said, sees 20,000 to 25,000 new signups in Dave’s Loyalty database. The promotion on Thursday alone generated 343,531 new accounts—more than 10 percent of the brand’s overall membership in one day, according to the CTO.

That was enough to knock Sora out of the top slot for the first time since October 3, an impressive stretch for an app that’s still invitation-only. In its first 23 days since launch, Sora generated 3.2 million iOS downloads in the US, according to app analytics company Sensor Tower. That’s a much faster pace than even ChatGPT, which, despite being similarly viral, had 2.3 million US downloads during the same period. (Sora isn’t yet available in the Google Play Store, but it’s coming.) OpenAI declined to comment.

Although Sora may regain the top spot after the Drake promotion dies, Dave’s Hot Chicken will have to reap the benefits of his gift. Last year, according to Sensor Tower, the app’s downloads were up 50 percent in the four weeks following the same marketing push compared to the month leading up to it. All those free sandwiches are worth the long-term gains.