When Sora launched as a standalone app last September, it shot to the top of the App Store within days and hit a million downloads in under a week. For a moment, it looked like OpenAI had a genuine hit on its hands. Six months later, the OpenAI Sora app is done.
OpenAI announced the shutdown on Tuesday via a post on X. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” the company wrote. “To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you.” The company didn’t give a reason in the post. A spokesperson told CNN that OpenAI needed to make trade-offs on products with high compute costs. The app, the API, and video generation inside ChatGPT will all go dark. Exact timing hasn’t been shared yet, though OpenAI says it’s working on ways for users to export and preserve their content.
With the OpenAI Sora app going away, the Disney deal is also off. In December, Disney announced a three-year deal to license more than 200 characters for use in Sora videos. That included franchises like Marvel and Star Wars, plus a planned $1 billion investment. According to multiple reports, no money actually changed hands before it collapsed. Disney offered measured words in response: “We respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere.”
Why Sora couldn’t hold on
Sora appeared to be doing very well at the start. Downloads peaked at around 3.3 million in November. However, they dropped 32% in December and another 45% in January, according to Appfigures. The app generated an estimated $2.1 million in total in-app purchase revenue over its entire run. That’s not much for a product that reportedly cost OpenAI around $15 million per day to run.
Then there were the copyright headaches piled on top of the declining numbers. Deepfakes of real people surfaced quickly, including of deceased public figures, which presented another problem. Let’s not forget that copyrighted characters like Mario and Pikachu appeared despite guardrails being put into place.
OpenAI says the research team behind the OpenAI Sora app will pivot to “world simulation research to advance robotics.” The company is also consolidating its browser, ChatGPT app, and coding tool into a single desktop product. That Sora launch six months ago felt like a big swing at consumer video. However, a meager $2.1 million in revenue against $15 million a day in compute costs pretty much tells us everything we need to know.
