OpenAI has an unexpected challenger in the App Store: Dave’s Hot Chicken

While the world of technology and finance continues to debate whether we are in an AI bubble, one thing is certain: people love AI!

For proof, no further than the Apple App Store, where OpenAI’s ChatGPT application and its video spin-off Sora are at the top of the ranking of “free applications”, and…

Oops ? So maybe we like AI, but we like fried chicken more?

Answer: We like – or at least are interested in – both things. But the reason why Dave’s Hot Chicken is currently at the top of the App Store rankings – above Sora and ChatGPT – is very simple: This week, the fast food chain, which counted Drake as an early investor, offered free sandwiches to everyone who used the app to order the sandwiches.

Cue lots of downloads, lots of media coverageand funny scenes like this.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Dave. But at least one of my kids loves it, so I spent a lot of money on hot chicken chain. I’m not saying that’s the reason the company was sold in a deal that valued it at $1 billion earlier this year. But it didn’t hurt?

But this isn’t a story about my discretionary spending. This is really a story about how Apple’s App Store rankings work. Because while it’s reasonable to think that rankings measure simple popularity, that’s not the case: they generally measure recent download speed. (Apple does not publicly disclose its formula, but developers have been making educated guesses about this for some time.)

So a hot new app that receives a wave of downloads will skyrocket to the top – but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay there.

If you see a top app stay at the top of the app rankings over an extended period of time – like ChatGPT – then you’ll likely see an app that has a lot of new downloads And lots of overall downloads. It’s a really popular app.

But that also means you need to be careful when a hot new app comes out and hits the top of the charts, like Sora has done in recent weeks.

Maybe this indicates that many people use Sora all the time. But it could also mean that a lot of people are hearing about Sora – which is still technically limited to users who have received invitations – and checking it out.

Whether they stay or not is another matter, and we won’t know for a while.