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ChatGPT became the world\u2019s most downloaded app in March, excluding games, topping the usual contenders for the No. 1 spot, Instagram and TikTok. This is the first time the app has topped the monthly download charts and ChatGPT\u2019s biggest month ever. According to new data, ChatGPT\u2019s installs jumped 28% from February to March to reach 46 million new downloads during March, app intelligence provider Appfigures<\/a> recently reported.<\/p>\n That put the app slightly ahead of Instagram, which fell to the No. 2 position. TikTok followed at No. 3. <\/p>\n Perhaps helping to drive installs, ChatGPT<\/a> saw some notable upgrades in March, including the first major upgrade to its image-generation capabilities<\/a> in over a year. This led to a viral moment for ChatGPT in late March<\/a> and early April as users discovered they could generate images and memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the popular Japanese animation studio behind movies like \u201cMy Neighbor Totoro\u201d and \u201cSpirited Away.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI also removed some safeguards<\/a> around content moderation policies for images in March and upgraded ChatGPT\u2019s AI voice feature<\/a>. <\/p>\n Appfigures noted that ChatGPT\u2019s installs have grown 148% year-over-year when comparing the first quarter of 2021 to Q1 2025.<\/p>\n However, the firm speculates that new features weren\u2019t the main driver behind this month\u2019s growth for the popular chatbot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s starting to feel like ChatGPT is becoming a verb, a lot like how Google did in the 2000s, to the point where many don\u2019t think \u2018AI\u2019 but rather \u2018ChatGPT,\u2019\u201d said Appfigures founder and CEO Ariel Michaeli. \u201cSo when there\u2019s excitement about AI \u2014 even about competition like Grok, Manus AI, or DeepSeek<\/a> \u2014 many who are not swimming in this topic come for AI but really download ChatGPT.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of ChatGPT\u2019s brand recognition, it may be harder for other AI chatbots to take off. That\u2019s partly why Anthropic\u2019s Claude<\/a> has poorer performance on this front than ChatGPT. It\u2019s also why Grok<\/a> could do better than other ChatGPT rivals \u2014 not necessarily because it\u2019s better, but because it has someone famous to market it with Elon Musk, and a large platform for distribution with X.<\/p>\n Instagram, meanwhile, had previously held the No. 2 spot across both the Apple App Store and Google Play in both January<\/a> and February<\/a> of this year, while TikTok remained No. 1.<\/p>\n To some extent, TikTok\u2019s download growth earlier this year was driven by concerns over a potential U.S. ban<\/a>, as consumers rushed to download the app in case it disappeared from the app stores. Now, that ban is on hold as President Trump aims to cut a deal<\/a> with China, where TikTok parent ByteDance is based, to keep the app available to U.S. users. <\/p>\n Ahead of this, Instagram had regularly been beating out TikTok for the No. 1 position across global app stores, having been the No. 1 (non-game) app throughout 2024. Instagram\u2019s popularity in the U.S. market has been growing, remaining a fave among U.S. teens. <\/p>\n For instance, a new survey of U.S. teens<\/a> by Piper Sandler released this week found that Instagram is the most-used social app, with 87% monthly usage, compared with 79% for TikTok and 72% for Snapchat.<\/p>\n In March, other social apps, including those from Meta, rounded out the top charts, with Facebook and WhatsApp filling out the top five, and others like CapCut, Telegram, Snapchat, and Meta\u2019s Threads in the top 10, alongside Temu.<\/p>\n In total, the top 10 apps were downloaded a collective 339 million times in March, higher than February\u2019s<\/a> 299 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n