This was first published June 10, in our weekly newsletter Apptopia Insight. To receive insights like this weekly, sign up here.
- Gemini’s downloads remain well below ChatGPT’s
- ChatGPT dominates DAU market share
- Character AI’s user engagement is amazing
- User churn is dropping at ChatGPT
AI is taking over the app store and ChatGPT is leading the pack. ChatGPT has been the #1 ranked app in the App Store for 86 of the past 100 days. This dominance is reflected in ChatGPT’s strong app downloads and high market share of AI app users. It is important to note at this point that we are talking about apps only. Gemini is doing extremely well on the web. However, its app downloads lag significantly behind ChatGPT’s:
Gemini’s daily downloads are not even one quarter of ChatGPT’s. This is not to disparage Gemini – it is incredibly useful! But ChatGPT is the King and everyone else is kneeling at the throne. Here is a chart showing market share of DAUs among AI apps:
Google Gemini made inroads in DAU market share at the end of 2024, and then DeepSeek gained share in early 2025, but look who gained market share in March, April, and May – ChatGPT. ChatGPT is back to over 55% of all AI App DAUs.
One non-ChatGPT app that is worth noting, however, is Character AI. While it only has 1% of DAU share, its users are WAY more engaged than those of other AI apps:
This chart shows the rising amount of time users are spending on AI Apps, but it is dominated by Character AI. Character AI’s users spend – on average – two hours per day on the app. That is more time than users spend on TikTok, and has been fairly consistent since 2023. This is truly incredible user engagement by the team over at Character AI.
Turning back to ChatGPT, there is one more metric to impress you with – user churn. This metric shows what percentage of its MAUs from one month ago are no longer an MAU today. The chart below shows that user churn is dropping steadily at ChatGPT (orange line) while Copilot and Character AI are relatively flat.
User Churn – ChatGPT, Copilot, Character AI
To summarize – the rise of Gemini has been greatly exaggerated, ChatGPT is still the King despite new competition, and ChatGPT’s users are churning less and less. Let us know if you want more detail.
