Apple announced the annual App Store charts and OpenAI’s ChatGPT topped the list as the most downloaded free iPhone app in the United States, making clear how quickly conversational AI had gone from a curiosity to something practical for mainstream users.
The chatbot beat out a crowded field that included social standbys and Google’s bread-and-butter in mobile. The free iPhone top ten in the U.S. was completed by (in order):
As a comparison note, that puts an AI assistant fairly high on a list multiple people open daily along with two-to-three others just below that spot.
How ChatGPT Shot To The Top of Apple’s U.S. Charts
ChatGPT’s rise illustrates a year of swift feature addition, and increasing comfort with all things AI. The app incorporated richer voice interactions, image understanding and more expedient access on-device, moving it beyond a browser novelty into a daily helper for getting quick answers, drafting and brainstorming on the go.
Apple’s deployment of Apple Intelligence and optional ChatGPT access on iOS — at moments creating one fantastic touchpoint inside the iPhone experience or another — directed curious users to give the dedicated app a shot. Those eyeballs, plus word of mouth and media saturation, then manifested in steady installs throughout the year.
The momentum had been building: The previous year, ChatGPT made the top five in the U.S. after launching on iPhone months before. Market intelligence companies like data.ai and Sensor Tower have observed a steady increase in AI assistant installs and engagement globally with spikes around major model updates as well as delivery of new voice capabilities.
But What Are The Ranking Signals For Mobile Search?
That ChatGPT surpassed Google’s core mobile apps and utilities in downloads doesn’t necessarily mean traditional search is endangered, but it does suggest that a significant portion of queries are moving to conversational channels. A lot of the things that used to go in a search bar — quick fact-finding, how-to steps, summaries and drafting — are now run through a chat interface that knows what you’re talking about.
Analysts at data.ai and Sensor Tower noted the growth of “assistant-first” behavior on mobile, where users open an AI app before opening a website or social feed. Pew Research Center has also found increasing awareness of AI chatbots among U.S. adults, largely through the steepest adoption by younger audiences and knowledge workers.
For OpenAI, topping Apple’s U.S. chart widens its funnel for paid upgrades and enterprise integrations. For Google, the fact that both Google Search and Gemini are in the top ten is indicative of a hedged strategy: preserve its dominance in search while addressing user desires for conversational answers. The competitive pressure now courses through the app icon users tapped first.
Rest Of The U.S. Download Leaders Across iPhone
Meta’s Threads nailed second place, indicating there’s still runway on mobile for text-heavy social chat with the identity and distribution of established social networks. And Instagram and WhatsApp were also fixtures in the top tier, another sign of Meta’s wide footprint across messaging, media and creators.
Google’s lineup remained the fulcrum of daily utility on iPhone: Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps and Gmail all made this list. Top charts have shown that Apple’s defaults comfortably coexist with deeply entrenched cross-platform habits. Gemini’s arrival reflects growing interest in multiple AI assistants as users experiment with varied strengths for research, planning and coding.
iPad And Games Snapshots From Apple’s 2025 Charts
Apple’s lists also offered a good look at category standouts beyond the iPhone. On iPad, YouTube ranked first among free apps and Procreate topped the paid-apps charts — a reflection of the tablet’s status as both a big-screen media device and a creative studio.
In gaming, Block Blast! became the most downloaded free title of the year on iPhone, and Minecraft held its ground as a top paid purchase — a combination of casual puzzle appeal and long-lasting sandbox creativity. There was more good news for Roblox, which carried free iPad games, maintaining its grip on the younger crowd and also for creators.
What To Watch Next As AI Assistants Shape Mobile Use
Download charts hint, but the pattern is obvious enough: AI assistants are emerging as front doors to knowledge, creativity and productivity on mobile. Anticipate that the competitive landscape for 2026 will heat up as OpenAI, Google and others iterate on multimodal voice, memory and agent capabilities to make one-off chats into ongoing workflows.
For Apple, the growing involvement of AI within the App Store bolsters its argument that on-device privacy and developer ecosystem investments can live alongside the state-of-the-art in AI. For users, the ranking at the top confirms what behavior has already indicated: The fastest path to an answer more and more often begins with a chat bubble.
