Claude becomes No. 1 on the App Store, overtaking ChatGPT
After Anthropic's dispute with the Pentagon, the Claude app reached No. 1 among free iPhone apps in the U.S.
From outside the top 100 to No. 1
According to Sensor Tower, Claude was outside the top 100 on the U.S. App Store at the end of January. It spent most of February in the top 20, then:
- Wednesday: No. 6
- Thursday: No. 4
- Saturday: No. 1, overtaking ChatGPT
Anthropic's numbers
According to an Anthropic spokesperson:
- Daily sign-ups set an all-time record every day that week.
- Free users are up more than 60% since January.
- Paid subscribers have more than doubled this year.
Why now?
The surge followed Anthropic's refusal to allow Claude to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons. The U.S. government directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products, and OpenAI announced its own Pentagon deal.
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