In March, ChatGPT surged to become the world’s most downloaded app, excluding games, surpassing familiar leaders like Instagram and TikTok. This marked the first time ChatGPT has taken the top spot in monthly downloads and represented its most significant month ever, with installations increasing by 28% from February to 46 million in March, according to Appfigures, an app intelligence company.
As a result, ChatGPT slightly outpaced Instagram, which fell to second place, while TikTok secured the third position. The surge in downloads can be attributed to notable updates released in March, including a significant enhancement of its image-generation capabilities, which created a viral trend as users began sharing images and memes inspired by Studio Ghibli, the renowned Japanese animation studio known for films like “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.”
OpenAI also relaxed some content moderation policies for images and improved ChatGPT’s AI voice feature during the same month.
Appfigures highlighted that ChatGPT’s installations have skyrocketed by 148% year-over-year when comparing Q1 2021 to Q1 2025. However, the firm suggests that the new features may not be the primary factor for this month’s growth.
“It’s starting to feel like ChatGPT is becoming a verb, similar to how Google did in the 2000s, so much so that many people don’t think ‘AI’ but rather ‘ChatGPT,’” stated Ariel Michaeli, founder and CEO of Appfigures. “When there’s excitement around AI — even in relation to competitors like Grok, Manus AI, or DeepSeek — many who aren’t deeply involved in the field come for AI but ultimately download ChatGPT.”
This strong brand recognition may hinder the emergence of other AI chatbots, with Anthropic’s Claude, for instance, showing weaker performance compared to ChatGPT. Conversely, Grok may perform better than other ChatGPT competitors, not necessarily due to superior capabilities but because it has a high-profile backer in Elon Musk and a broad distribution platform through X.
Instagram had consistently held the number two position in both the Apple App Store and Google Play in January and February, with TikTok maintaining the number one spot. TikTok’s earlier growth can be partly attributed to concerns over a potential ban in the U.S., prompting users to download the app in preparation for its possible removal. The ban is currently on hold as President Trump seeks a deal with China, where TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is located, to keep the app accessible to American users.
Meanwhile, Instagram has been gaining popularity in the U.S. market, particularly among teens. A recent Piper Sandler survey found that Instagram is the leading social app in the U.S., with 87% monthly user engagement, compared to 79% for TikTok and 72% for Snapchat.
In March, other social media apps from Meta also featured prominently in the top charts, with Facebook and WhatsApp in the top five, alongside CapCut, Telegram, Snapchat, and Meta’s Threads, along with Temu. In total, the top 10 applications were downloaded 339 million times in March, surpassing the previous month’s total of 299 million.
