ChatGPT’s new app rolls out of the door hot, tops half a million installs in first 6 days

Despite being only in the US and on iOS ahead of today’s expansion to 11 other global markets, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app has got off to a flying start. The app has already surpassed half a million downloads in the first six days since its launch, according to new analysis from app intelligence provider data.ai. That ranks it as one of the best-performing new app releases this year and last, topped only by the February 2022 arrival of Trump-backed Twitter clone Truth Social.

As consumer demand for AI chatbots grew, other third-party apps calling themselves “ChatGPT” or “IA chatbot” filled the App Store. While many of them were essentially polar software, trying to trick consumers into paying expensive subscriptions to access their AI, a combined group of leading apps still managed to generate millions in spending from consumption. This competitive landscape among AI chatbot apps could have created a tougher market for an official ChatGPT app to gain traction. But it turns out that was not the case.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT app outperformed most of its competitors, including other popular AI and chatbot apps as well as apps from Microsoft, Bing, and Edge, which offered some of the industry’s first significant third-party integrations. GPT-4 technology from OpenAI.

While Bing and Microsoft Edge certainly benefited from early interest in ChatGPT, seeing 340,000 and 335,000 downloads on iOS and Android, respectively, during their best five-day periods in February, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app easily surpassed them, generating 480,000 installs in the first five days after its US launch, when the app was iOS-only.

Compared to Bing and Edge’s iOS downloads alone, ChatGPT was even further ahead with 480K installs versus Bing’s 250K and Edge’s 195K.

Picture credits: data.ai

However, Bing and Edge were still ahead of ChatGPT when looking at all US downloads in May from both app stores, not just comparing iOS installs for the month. This indicates that ChatGPT may soon outpace these search-focused alternatives.

Image credits, above and below: data.ai

Data.ai’s analysis also found the app outperformed other top AI chatbot apps in the US, many of which were generically named to capitalize on consumer searches for keywords such as “AI” and “chatbot” on the App Store. Here, OpenAI’s ChatGPT landed in the top five downloads, when ranked against the best five-day periods of other apps in 2023 on the App Store and Google Play.

The only app to beat it was “Chat with Ask AI,” which saw 590,000 installs from April 4-8, 2023, compared to ChatGPT’s 480,000 installs from May 18-22, according to the data.

Picture credits: data.ai

Although it has only been available for a week, ChatGPT also already ranks in the top five AI chatbot apps by downloads in the United States in May 2023. At the time of analyzing data.ai’s numbers, it compared ChatGPT and other leading chatbot apps for May 23 – so technically less than a week since ChatGPT launched.

By then, the app had recorded 550,000 downloads, tied with Genie – AI Chatbot, the next closest ranked AI chatbot app by May downloads on the US App Store. However, a few others were more advanced, including ChatOn – AI Chat Bot Assistant (610,000 installs), AI Chatbot – Nova (680,000 installs), and Chat with Ask AI (1.4 million installs). Still, considering how quickly ChatGPT was able to top half a million installs, it could soon beat those rivals.

Picture credits: data.ai

Plus, ChatGPT had one of the best new app launches this year – and in 2022 data.ai found it.

In the first five days of ChatGPT iOS downloads in the US after launch, it generated 480,000 installs, which ranked it second in app launches, behind Truth Social, which saw 630,000. downloads. The next largest launches (i.e. the first 5 days after launch) included the March 2023 arrival of Widgetable: Lock Screen Widget (360,000 installs) and the 2022 launches of MyNBA2K23 (310,000 installs) and sendtit – Q&A on Instagram (260,000 installs).

This also placed ChatGPT in the >99.99th percentile for new app launches in the US since 2022 on iOS.

Data.ai notes that only the top 1% of apps generated more than 10,600 downloads in the US in their first five days, and the top 0.1% saw more than 45,000. Its analysis included data for approximately 39,000 apps launched in the US on iOS since the start of 2022 and then ranked in the top charts at some point during that time. (Data does not include Apple’s proprietary apps, such as Apple Music Classical).

Picture credits: data.ai

Of course, installs are just one way to measure consumer demand and are not as reliable as analyzing how many people subsequently signed up and became active users of the app.

However, because ChatGPT is still so new, data.ai won’t yet have precise estimates on metrics like daily or monthly active users, it says — it may take another few weeks to generate.