OpenAI’s Sora lost its top App Store ranking to Dave’s Hot Chicken
Since its launch On September 30, Soray’s OpenAI app dominated the iOS app store charts thanks to simple AI video production and an initially weak interpretation of copyright laws. Its reign ended on Friday. Your new hero is…Dev’s Hot Chicken.
Yes! Not ChatGPT or Gemini or Threads or any of the other usual suspects. Dave’s Hot Chicken now dominates the App Store, where the loose-beaked, bug-eyed mascot expresses appropriate surprise at its rise. How did it do? How did TikTok break OpenAI’s perception? With something people love even more than big-tongued models: free food.
“They’re running a promotion for free sliders at Drake’s birthday party,” says Adam Blacker, director of PR for app analytics company Apptopia. “Free food always drives downloads.”
If you’re wondering what Drake has to do with all 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 for $1 billion. For the third year in a row, the company is giving away one (1) free slider to anyone who downloads the app in honor of Drake’s birthday. (The rapper and Raptors fan turns 39 today; the giveaway was Thursday.)
“We’re celebrating a celebrity that’s popular and relevant right now, and we’re also putting food in people’s mouths,” says Dave’s Hot Chicken CTO Leon Davoian.
And there are really a lot of people. In a typical week, Dave’s sees between 20,000 and 25,000 new signups in its loyalty database, Davoian says. On Thursday alone, the ad generated 343,531 new accounts, a more than 10 percent increase over the brand’s overall membership in one day, according to the CTO.
It was enough to knock Sora out of the top spot for the first time since Oct. 3, a remarkable stretch for the still-invitation-only program. Sora had 3.2 million iOS downloads in the US in the first 23 days after launch, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower. That’s much faster than ChatGPT, which, while similarly viral, was downloaded 2.3 million times in the US during the same period. (Sora isn’t available in the Google Play Store yet, but it’s coming.) OpenAI declined to comment.
While Sora will likely take the top spot after Drake’s promotions end, Dave’s Hot Chicken should still reap the benefits of its giveaway. Last year, app downloads were more than 50 percent higher in the four weeks following the same marketing push than in the month leading up to it, according to Sensor Tower. All those free sandwiches are worth the long-term benefits.
