While DeepSeek’s mid-January launch sparked a fierce rivalry in the generative AI space, with the new app quickly climbing the charts and challenging industry leaders, ChatGPT remains the clear market leader, boasting more monthly downloads than its two biggest competitors combined.
According to data presented by Altindex.com, ChatGPT hit an impressive 40.5 million downloads in January, which is 50% more than the combined downloads of DeepSeek and Google Gemini.
ChatGPT’s Monthly Downloads Soared by 120% Year-over-Year
With millions of users exploring various generative AI platforms, competition in this market has become extremely intense. AI companies are pushing to innovate faster than ever, offering better performance, lower costs, and new features to stay ahead. As the youngest player in the industry, DeepSeek certainly stirred up the scene.
As the Chinese app gained traction, OpenAI responded with rapid updates to ChatGPT, while Google ramped up enhancements for Gemini, fueling a race to create the most advanced and widely used chatbot. Despite these efforts, ChatGPT remained the absolute king, with far more monthly downloads than any other rival.
According to AppMagic data, ChatGPT was downloaded a whopping 40.5 million times in January alone, or 50% more than DeepSeek and Gemini combined. Moreover, this represents a massive 121% jump from last January, when the app hit 18.3 million monthly downloads.
Despite being the youngest player in the market, DeepSeek still boasted an impressive 17.6 million downloads, or 56% less than ChatGPT. Google’s Gemini ranked third with 9.6 million monthly downloads, roughly half of DeepSeek’s total and four times lower than ChatGPT’s, while ByteDance’s Duobao trailed with 8.9 million. All other generative AI apps saw much lower numbers.
Statistics show that PixVerse hit nearly 6.2 million times in the same month, while Twhile Talkie and AI Chatbot Nova were downloaded around four million times. Microsoft Copilot and Character AI were at the back of the list, with 2.8 million downloads each.
ChatGPT Hit 282 Million Downloads in 2024, 40 Million More Than Spotify
While some skeptics argued that ChatGPT’s initial burst of public interest and a hefty influx of venture capital didn’t translate into lasting usage, the full-year download figures tell a different story.
The app averaged 18 million monthly downloads in the first half of 2024, but numbers exploded in the second half, surging to 32 million in September and then over 40 million at the start of 2025. This upward trend helped the popular generative AI app to boast over 282 million downloads by the end of the year, nearly 40 million more than Spotify and around 60 million more than the popular shopping app Shein, ranking it as the 13th most popular app in 2024.