For years, social media giants TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have claimed the top spots in the global ranking of the most-downloaded apps, leaving a major gap between them and the rest of the market. But in just two and a half years, ChatGPT has not only climbed into that elite group but also taken the lead as the world’s most downloaded app.
ChatGPT hit over 900 million downloads in just 11 months, 200 million more than TikTok and 380 million ahead of Instagram, ranking as the number one app globally.
ChatGPT’s Total Downloads Surge to 1.36 Billion
As the pioneer in the AI space, ChatGPT has been a driving force behind turning generative AI into a multi-billion-dollar business from day one. Two and a half years later, OpenAI’s poster child remains the biggest and most influential player in the market, with competitors still struggling to catch up. However, ChatGPT’s global success can now be measured far beyond its primary market. According to AppMagic data, ChatGPT’s downloads soared in 2025, making it the most-downloaded app globally, and leaving competitors far behind.
Between January and November, ChatGPT was downloaded a whopping 902 million times, nearly three times as many as in the entire last year and almost seven times as many as in its launch year, 2023.
This impressive figure was driven by a surge in downloads during Q2 and Q3, especially in April, July, and August, when monthly installs topped 100 million. Since its launch, ChatGPT has reached 1.36 billion cumulative downloads, which is a mind-blowing figure for an app just two and a half years on the market that shows a similar growth pace to TikTok, the fastest-growing social media app ever.
The 902 million downloads in just eleven months become even more impressive when compared to other giants on the AppMagic list. For example, TikTok, the second-most-downloaded app in 2025, reached 703 million downloads between January and November, roughly 200 million fewer than ChatGPT.
Instagram was left even more behind, with a 380 million gap and 521.6 million downloads in 11 months. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Temu rounded out the top five, each with 404-444 million downloads, while Google Gemini was the only other AI app in the top ten, with 392 million installs in this period.
ChatGPT’s Market Share Hit 81.8% in November, 4x Its Top 5 Rivals Combined
It will be interesting to see the full-year 2025 figures, knowing that people continue flocking to AI apps, and ChatGPT as their number one choice.
While younger players like DeepSeek and Perplexity have undoubtedly shaken up the AI chatbot market and pushed OpenAI to roll out more frequent updates, ChatGPT remains the top choice for most people using generative AI daily.
According to our previous research, ChatGPT now captures more than 80% of global AI chatbot market.
What do you think?
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