OpenAI’s ChatGPT hits a jaw-dropping 410.8 million downloads

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OpenAI’s ChatGPT just pulled off something that would make even TikTok jealous. According to Business Insider, it’s been the most downloaded app across all app stores for seven straight months. March through September? Pure domination mode.

The numbers are honestly ridiculous. We’re talking 410.8 million global downloads year-to-date. That’s not a typo.

To put that in perspective, Google’s Gemini—you know, from the company that literally owns Android managed a measly 131.1 million downloads. DeepSeek scraped together 79.2 million, while Grok barely hit 46.6 million.

But here’s where it gets absolutely bonkers: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman casually dropped that ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users. Eight. Hundred. Million. That’s more than the entire population of Europe chatting with an AI chatbot every week.

The usage stats are equally mind-melting. Back in July, ChatGPT was processing over 2.5 billion messages daily—that’s roughly 29,000 messages per second.

What’s wild is how ChatGPT isn’t just winning—it’s creating an entirely new category while everyone else scrambles to catch up.

Sure, Google, Meta, and every other tech giant are throwing billions at AI, yet somehow a relatively small startup is eating their lunch, dinner, and probably tomorrow’s breakfast too.

This isn’t just app store success; it’s a complete cultural shift. When your AI assistant becomes more popular than Instagram or Netflix, you know we’ve officially entered the ChatGPT era.

The question isn’t whether AI will dominate our digital lives, it already has.

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.