Sora ran into trouble when its "cameos" (later called "characters") let users make unauthorized deepfakes of public figures, drawing heavy criticism; the company also faced a trademark lawsuit from Cameo over the feature's name, after which it was renamed "characters."
Even though it hit 3.3 million downloads last November, downloads fell from about 3,332,200 in November to about 1,128,700 by February 2026.
Sora also missed out on a potential $1 billion Disney deal that would have brought famous characters into the app, highlighting how tough it is to run AI platforms responsibly.