Generative AI apps are enjoying an unprecedented surge in popularity, as both user downloads and in-app spending reached record highs in the first half of 2025, according to a report released by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
Between January and June 2025, users downloaded generative AI apps 1.7 billion times—up from 1 billion in the latter half of 2024—signaling a staggering 70% growth. The category also recorded a dramatic spike in in-app purchases, with revenue nearly doubling to $1.87 billion from $932 million in H2 2024.
Users are not just downloading these apps; they’re spending more time than ever inside them. Sensor Tower reported that Gen AI apps saw over 15.6 billion hours of usage in H1 2025, a sharp rise from 8.5 billion hours in the second half of 2024. These figures spanned 426 billion sessions, a sign of increasing user engagement.
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Asia Emerges as the AI Frontier
Asia outpaced all other regions in download growth, accounting for 42.6% of global Gen AI app installs in the first half of the year. Much of this momentum was driven by rising adoption in markets like India and Mainland China, with the region’s overall download growth reaching 80%, far ahead of 51% in Europe and 39% in North America.
When it comes to in-app purchases, Latin America registered the highest growth, though North America still holds the largest market share, pulling in 40% of total Gen AI in-app revenues.
ChatGPT Dominates Global Market—Except China
The growth of ChatGPT stood out in nearly every category. The app led in-app revenue rankings globally, except in China, where DeepSeek, a local competitor, topped the charts shortly after launch. While DeepSeek took the lead in downloads in China, ChatGPT maintained its dominance elsewhere, becoming the most-used generative AI assistant.
According to Sensor Tower, ChatGPT was used for an average of 12.1 days per month in H1 2025. That frequency places it alongside top social platforms like X and Reddit, with only Google having a better usage rate. Notably, weekend usage of ChatGPT also rose, suggesting that users now rely on the app not only for work-related tasks but also for lifestyle needs and personal support.
Beyond traditional uses like writing and coding, users are increasingly turning to ChatGPT for help with health and wellness, shopping recommendations, personal finance, and meal preparation. In Q2 2025 alone, over one-third of prompts were related to lifestyle and entertainment, demonstrating the app’s expanding role as a versatile assistant.
The report also found that 15% of ChatGPT users in the U.S. access it across both mobile and web, a multi-platform engagement that outpaces popular platforms like Temu and Threads, but still lags behind tech giants such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon, where 25% or more of users interact across devices.
Generative AI Turns into a Branding Trend
The AI boom has also sparked a naming frenzy. The term “AI” now appears in over 100,000 app descriptions across the App Store and Play Store. In H1 2025, apps with “AI” in their names or descriptions were downloaded 7.5 billion times, accounting for about 10% of all app downloads globally.
Sensor Tower noted that developers across multiple categories—from photo editing and nutrition to test prep, translation, and hobby apps—are adding AI references to gain traction. This strategy has delivered measurable, though often short-lived, spikes in downloads.
“Apps that added terms like ‘AI’ or ‘LLM’ to their names or descriptions experienced a notable boost in downloads over the subsequent months,” the report stated, adding that while the term offers short-term visibility, it doesn’t guarantee long-term engagement unless backed by robust AI capabilities.
What It Means
The Sensor Tower report reinforces what many in the tech industry have anticipated—generative AI is not just a trend but a transformation. With increasing engagement times, cross-platform adoption, and diversified use cases, apps like ChatGPT are shifting how users interact with digital tools.
This means that as regional players like DeepSeek gain traction and new apps flood the market, the global generative AI space is setting the stage for even fiercer competition and innovation in the second half of the year.