The top 10 most downloaded mobile apps (not games) in the world made their way into 318M devices in May: 🥇 ChatGPT (61M) 🥈 TikTok (43M) 🥉 Instagram (39M) Source: Appfigures Intelligence estimates
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The top 10 highest-earning mobile apps (not games) in the world earned $1.22B after fees in May 🥇 TikTok ($300M) 🥈 ChatGPT ($201M) 🥉 YouTube ($138M) Source: Appfigures Intelligence estimates
🤯 Two big TV events and one huge game finally pushed AI down the App Store charts. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have been Top 5 U.S. iOS apps for months. No match for: 🏝️ Love Island USA 🎮 Pokémon Champions ⚽ World Cup viewing + betting More perfect storm than trend change.
🎧 Apple could've filled its WWDC rap with shiny AI startups. Instead, it chose apps averaging 11 years old. 95 made the cut. 92 have hit #1. Averaging 270x the installs and 665x the revenue of a typical app. It wasn’t hyping new trends. It was spotlighting staying power.
🤯 Claude grew revenue 26x in a year. Not downloads. Revenue. May downloads were actually lower than April. Yet Claude still hit a record $92M month. The best AI apps aren't just growing. They're getting dramatically better at getting paid.
💡 Instants doesn't need to beat Snapchat day one. It has to show Instagram can push a behavior back into the mainstream. 4M installs so far says it can. The hard part is building the habit. Threads shows the result of Meta being patient. Instants might get the same treatment.
🤯 ChatGPT mobile grossed $5B — faster than YouTube, Tinder, Disney+, or TikTok. 🚀 It made $5B (est.) before any rival hit $500M. 💰 By late '25, it was grossing nearly $7/install. 📅 Some months. it made more than rivals' lifetime totals. AI got big. ChatGPT got bigger. 📈
Most consumers don’t care what AI model just shipped. They care if it *looks* better. Image model updates drove 6.5x more installs than other model upgrades. That's what the data shows. If users can see the improvement, they try it. Then they share it.
⛽ 📈 Higher gas prices didn’t just nudge Gas Buddy demand, they detonated it 117K February → 570K March (estimated) 4K/day → 18K/day in March Installs have stayed ~20K/day into April Pain at the pump = instant demand In this case, that demand is also consistent
📈 We looked at every new app in the last 8 months (not including games) that's making real money. • 17K are generating revenue • 268 are making $50K+/month • 116 make $100K+/month That's 116 apps most have never heard of, quietly clearing $1.2M+/year each after store fees.
💡 The real story isn’t an agent marketplace, it’s ceilings. Picsart revenue per download hit one at around $2/install. Meanwhile, downloads softened. So it added a new axis of spend per user, not more users. The jury is out on its effectiveness, but we should know more soon.
The most downloaded mobile apps in the world in February: 🥇 ChatGPT (50.7M) ↓ 5.2M (-10%) 🥈 TikTok (39.7M) ↓ 3.4M (-8%) 🥉 Instagram (37.8M) ↓ 4.0M (-10%) Downloads estimates from Appfigures Intelligence.
The highest earning mobile apps in the world for February 2026: 🥇 TikTok ($286M) ↑ $2.1M (+0.7%) 🥈 ChatGPT ($194.2M) ↓ $29.8M (-13%) 🥉 YouTube ($142.3M) ↓ $12.4M (-8%) Revenue is estimated after store fees.
🏄 Subway Surfers might have pulled off a rare trick. A sequel that grows the franchise instead of cannibalizing it. Original game: ~540K estimated downloads per day. City: ~5M est. downloads in 10 days. Together the brand is now doing 1M installs a day worldwide.
🧩 If you want to see the power of character IP in mobile games: Candy Crush Solitaire ~$12M est. lifetime net revenue. Disney Solitaire ~$137M in 11 months. Same core game. Different emotional connection.
🔀 The AI assistant race just had a crossover moment. For the first time ever on Feb 28: -Claude: 152K U.S. est. downloads -ChatGPT: 113K And it wasn’t just a 1-day spike. Mar 2: -Claude: 149K -ChatGPT: 124K It follows a Feb where Claude installs grew 240% MoM in the U.S.
🔥 2+ years of soft launch vs. 1 week of global launch. Rainbow Six Mobile: ~6M estimated installs since 2022. But 3.1M came in the first week after Feb 23. ~$400K earned since global launch last week. ~$1.1M lifetime net (estimated).
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🤯 An app you’ve never heard of is up with ChatGPT on the App Store charts. Freecash jumped from 40K iOS installs a month to almost 6M. Not from product innovation. From a TikTok ad promising a payout for scrolling your feed. The payday wasn't legit, but 5.5M downloads were.
🏂 The Olympics didn’t just boost Peacock. They hit the growth button. ⏫ 44K to 200K est. daily downloads in a weekend. February is already 2x last year. Meanwhile, net revenue grew. Up 44% YoY from $466M to $674M (est.) Installs are hype. 📢 Net revenue is winning. 🏅
📈 The most predictable spike in the App Store isn’t in fitness. It’s a prayer app. Hallow just pulled 263K (est.) downloads on Ash Wednesday. Again. 25x its normal day. Clockwork demand, calendar-driven growth. The real question now: how much of it turns into March revenue.
🤖 🏈 Claude bet the Super Bowl on one message: “No ads in your AI.” Downloads jumped 211% week-over-week. Every other major AI app dipped or stayed flat. And the craziest part? The biggest day wasn’t game day. It was a week later. That’s not a spike. That’s momentum.
💡 Prime example of a different kind of growth strategy. No big feature renaissance. No rebrand. Just tighter economics inside the app. The product narrative cools. The revenue narrative improves.
🔥 Grok just matched ChatGPT’s first year revenue on mobile. ~$79M in 12 months (estimated). ChatGPT did ~$80M in its first 12. The difference? ChatGPT launched alone. Grok launched into a knife fight. If this pace holds, year two gets interesting fast.
💀 Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile shuts down April 17. Lifetime estimates: 24.8M downloads, $17.3M gross ($12.1M after stores' fees). For context, the still-functional COD Mobile sits at 459M installs and $2.47B. Same franchise. Completely different scale.
📊 Step’s impressive growth story predates today's MrBeast deal. An estimated ~9.3M total downloads since 2019. January added ~120K installs, up 97% YoY. The momentum was already there in a big way. What comes next will be a test of the streamer's appeal.
🕹️ Something interesting is happening with NYT Games. Crossplay soft-launched for ~8 months, ~228K installs. Then it goes live for all and adds ~186K in a day. Now it's the No. 1 free app on iOS. Feels like brand gravity has kicked in. This could be a gateway, not just a game.
Polymarket's downloads explode as Wall Street bets $2B on prediction markets 💥 1,172% increase in downloads in 2025, most came in December
The highest-earning mobile apps in the world in December: 🥇 TikTok ($284M) 🥈 ChatGPT ($229M) 🥉 YouTube ($148M) Revenue estimates after store fees from Appfigures Intelligence
The most downloaded mobile apps in the world in December: 🥇 ChatGPT (49.6M) 🥈 TikTok (41.9M) 🥉 Instagram (40.2M) Downloads estimates from Appfigures Intelligence