GenAI App Revenue Doubles, Downloads Reach 1.7B in H1 2025

Growth of Generative AI Applications in H1 2025

A recent report by Sensor Tower, a leading market intelligence company, indicates substantial expansion in the generative AI (GenAI) application landscape during the first half of 2025.

Both download numbers and in-app revenue experienced significant increases. User downloads of GenAI applications reached 1.7 billion, a considerable rise from the 1 billion downloads recorded in the second half of 2024.

Revenue and Usage Statistics

The financial performance of these applications also saw a marked improvement. In-app revenue doubled, totaling $1.87 billion in H1 2025, compared to $932 million in H2 2024.

User engagement with GenAI apps also surged. Over 15.6 billion hours were spent within these applications during the first six months of 2025.

This represents a significant increase from the 8.5 billion hours logged in the latter half of 2024. These usage figures were accumulated across more than 426 billion sessions.

Regional Performance

Asia emerged as the fastest-growing market for GenAI applications. It also secured the top position in download market share, accounting for 42.6% of all downloads.

This Asian growth was largely driven by strong performance in India and Mainland China.

Download growth in Asia reached 80% during H1 2025. This contrasts with 51% growth observed in Europe and 39% in North America.

In-App Purchase Trends

Latin America (LatAm) demonstrated the highest growth rate for in-app purchases within GenAI applications.

However, North America continues to lead in overall market share for in-app purchases, currently holding 40%.

The Expanding Reach of ChatGPT

According to Sensor Tower’s analysis, ChatGPT achieved the position of top-grossing app in terms of in-app revenue across all countries, excluding China. However, the DeepSeek application, originating from China, demonstrated a greater volume of downloads during the weeks following its release.

User engagement with various AI assistants is demonstrably increasing, with ChatGPT currently maintaining a leading position. On average, individuals dedicated over 12 days per month to utilizing the application during the first half of the year.

The sustained user retention exhibited by ChatGPT is particularly noteworthy. Sensor Tower reports that the app is being utilized by users to a degree comparable to X and Reddit. Only Google currently boasts a higher average monthly usage rate.

Furthermore, the report indicates an improvement in ChatGPT’s weekend usage compared to the previous year, suggesting a broadening reliance on the AI-powered chat app beyond professional contexts.

The report stated, “This evolution aligns its app usage patterns more closely with those of Google, which is frequently relied upon by consumers as a primary search tool during both work and leisure hours.”

The disparity in usage between ChatGPT and applications within the leading search engine and browser categories has been diminishing over time. For example, during the first half of 2025, ChatGPT recorded an average daily usage of 16 minutes, contrasted with 18.2 minutes for top search engines and browsers.

Beyond its role as a search tool, users are increasingly leveraging ChatGPT for guidance in areas such as health and wellness, shopping, personal finance management, and meal planning. The analysis revealed that over one-third of prompts submitted to ChatGPT in the second quarter of 2025 pertained to lifestyle and entertainment topics.

Sensor Tower observed that ChatGPT is attracting users across both its mobile application and web-based platforms. More than 15% of ChatGPT users in the United States access the service through both web and mobile interfaces, a higher percentage than platforms like Temu and Threads.

Despite this progress, ChatGPT still lags behind other established platforms, including Google, Facebook, YouTube, Google Docs, and Amazon, which all maintain over 25% of users accessing their services via both web and mobile channels.

The Proliferation of "AI" in App Marketing

Recent analysis indicates a significant surge in the use of the term "AI" within app store listings. The intelligence company reported that "AI" is now featured more than 100,000 times across app descriptions on the App Store and Google Play Store.

During the first half of 2025, applications referencing AI were downloaded a substantial 7.5 billion times. This figure represents approximately 10% of all app downloads during that period.

Growth Across Diverse App Categories

Over the past year, a noticeable trend has emerged: an increasing number of apps are incorporating AI-related terminology. This is particularly evident in categories such as AI assistants, AI content creation, photo editing, nutrition and diet, test preparation, tutoring and studying, translation, and various hobby and interest services.

The inclusion of “AI” in app titles and descriptions is becoming increasingly common among top-performing applications. However, the impact of this practice on download numbers appears to be temporary.

Short-Term Download Increases Observed

Sensor Tower’s findings confirm that apps strategically adding terms like “AI” or “LLM” to their metadata experienced a measurable increase in downloads in the months following the changes.

This suggests that while the term "AI" currently attracts user attention, its long-term effectiveness as a marketing tactic remains to be seen. The initial boost in downloads doesn't necessarily translate to sustained growth.