Sora 2: The app launch and shockwave

OpenAI's video generation model, Sora 2 had an explosive launch on the app store. The new app, initially only invite only to users in the U.S.A and Canada, showcases OpenAI's leap forward in realism from their unimpressive Sora 1 generation model. The new Sora app is positioned not to just be another generative tool, but a social media with TikTok like appearance and feel. It's a social network in disguise, capable of creating infinitely unique viral content with unprecedented speed. Sora's 'Cameo' feature allows users to upload their own face (in theory) and then set permissions to who can feature them in AI generated videos. The app immediately captivated the public and put up impressive download numbers in its first week.

OpenAI announces Sora text to video

Viral success: Sora app store downloads

Within days of its release on September 30, initially only invite only requiring a code to sign up, the Sora app claimed the #1 position on the Apple App Store (1).

Verified statistics from the analytics firms confirm the viral adoption rate:

• Downloads reached 56,000 times on launch day (2)

• Reached 164,000 installs within the first 48 hours (2)

• Exceeded 1 million downloads in record time, beating the initial momentum of ChatGPT on the app store (3)

It is confirmed however the official Sora App has received a very poor rating on the app store considering its popularity. At the time of writing the official Sora app has a 2.8/5 star rating. The rating being effected heavily by 1 star reviews mainly talking about the issues on copyright restrictions and the inclusion of a moving watermark on videos even for members who pay for premium OpenAI membership tiers.

Sora App reviews screenshot

Model performance: Subject reference strength and multi-scene output

The core reason we believe is driving the success for Sora is the leap in subject realism and capability. The Sora 2 is a huge leap forward for OpenAI compared to the poor outputs of Sora1. The model can produce multi-scene outputs alongside realistic sound and pretty much perfect lip syncing. Sora 2 also excels in human movement mechanics, something Googles VEO3 struggles to produce (3).

Highlights and Negatives of Sora 2

Positive Performance	Negative Performance & Limitations
Photorealistic Output: Videos achieve a high degree of photorealism, often with accurate natural lighting and colour (5). The Cameo feature especially peforms highly in maintining charecter consistency.	Long-Range Coherence: While short clips are consistent, maintaining consistency across complex, multi-shot sequences is still "unproven" (6). Although we have seen some examples in viral videos where scene and charecters are maintaned pretty accurately.
Synchronised Audio: Sora 2 generates synchronised dialogue, background ambience, and sound effects directly alongside video (7). Although VEO3 is capable of this, Sora 2 tends to produce more realistic accents and voices relevant to the charecter used.	Glitches: The model is clearly a huge jump forward to Sora1 when it comes to pixel glitching. We did find especially on the basic Sora2 option compared to Sora2 pro a presence of subtle deforming shapes in the final frames as well as glitching pixels on faces (8).
Controllable Physics: Improved adherence to real-world mechanics, successfully simulating complex phenomena like gravity and body mechanics better than its competitors (6). We were very impressed by the official video released by OpenAI featuring an ice skater performance.	Overly Aggressive Guardrails: Users report frustrating overly agressive gaurdrails when creating certain types of content or mentioning key names. Intergrations of Sora2 into 3rd party providers such as Higgsfield and Artlist also had high user reports of refusal to generate any faces at all. (9).
Anime Style Output: Sora 2 produces anime style scenes with impressive accuracy. Capturing the style of the prompted anime very well. It also excels in fast-action scenes such as anime fight scenes with impressive accuracy.	Video Output Quality: Sora 2 currently sits at number 17 on the text to video leaderboard (11). Although a great way to create meme style viral content without the need for long prompts, models such as Kling 2.5 and VEO3 tend to deliver higher consistent quality.

Controversy and The Price of Popularity

Sora 2’s launch has already seen two major controversies:

1. The Copyright Firestorm: OpenAI initially deployed a controversial default policy, allowing content generation using copyrighted characters (like Mario or Pikachu) unless rights holders explicitly opted out (Source 1). This drew immediate, sharp criticism from Hollywood and legal experts, leading OpenAI to quickly reverse course and announce a shift toward an opt-in system (Source 1). Viral videos using rick and morty or disney charecters gathered huge views but are no longer possible.

2. The Fake App Epidemic: The immense hype created the perfect opportunity for online scammers to step in. Following the invite-only launch, the google play and apple app store were flooded with fraudulent copycat apps using names like 'Sora 2' and 'Sora AI' to deceive users into buying them. These fake app releases reportedly racked up over 300,000 downloads and generated more than $160,000 in revenue before many of them were taken down (3,10).

The immense hype created a gold rush for scammers. Following the official invite-only launch, the App Store was flooded with fraudulent copycat apps using names like "Sora 2" to deceive users. These fake apps collectively racked up over 300,000 downloads and generated more than $160,000 in revenue before many were taken down (Source 3, 10).

The combination of strict guardrails and the initial copyright backlash has led to a noticeable drop in user satisfaction, with the app’s average rating settling around 2.9 stars (Source 9).

Conclusion

Sora 2's release to the public is a big jump forward in the capabilities of consumer-grade generative AI. It offers a compelling realism and a glimpse into the future of content where anyone can produce anything with the only limit being imagination. We have seen in real time Sora generated videos in the 'meme' space go extremely viral and we think for now that is all it will be. If you want to speak to one of our experts about how we can produce Hollywood level visuals for your brand, feel free to reach out at anytime,

Verified Sources & References

1. The Economic Times: "OpenAI's Sora 2 tops Apple's App Store amid copyright backlash"

2. The Economic Times, citing Appfigures data (on launch day downloads).

3. India Today / TechCrunch: "Fake Sora apps flood App Store as OpenAI Sora hits record downloads..."

4. OpenAI (from the original Sora research technical report).

5. CEUR-WS.org: "The influence of audiovisual elements on the realism of generative AI videos: the case of Sora"

6. Skywork.ai: "OpenAI Sora 2 Review 2025: What Works, What Doesn't, and Real Use"

7. Medium / ITX Crusher: "OpenAI's Sora 2: A New Chapter in Generative Video"

8. DataCamp: "Sora 2: Examples, Critiques, and Early Impressions"

9. Reddit / r/OpenAI: "The Sora 2 app rating is 2.9 now" (reflecting user critique on guardrails and content restrictions).

10. Lifehacker / TechCrunch: "Watch Out for Fake Sora Apps" (on collective fake app downloads).

11. Video Generation Model Arena | Artificial Analysis