Generative AI applications experienced explosive growth during the first half of 2025, with revenue doubling and total downloads reaching 1.7 billion, according to the latest market intelligence report from Sensor Tower. Compared to the second half of 2024, when downloads stood at 1 billion, the sector saw a massive surge in user adoption and monetization, generating $1.87 billion in in-app revenue compared to $932 million in the previous period.
Engagement Metrics and Regional Dominance
The intensity of user interaction with AI tools has scaled significantly. In the first half of 2025, users spent 15.6 billion hours across 426 billion sessions within GenAI apps, nearly doubling the 8.5 billion hours recorded in H2 2024.
Asia emerged as the fastest-growing market, capturing 42.6% of global download share, fueled primarily by India and Mainland China. While Asia saw an 80% growth in downloads, Europe and North America trailed with 51% and 39% growth, respectively. In terms of in-app purchasing power, Latin America registered the highest growth rate, though North America remains the dominant market with a 40% share.
The Dominance of ChatGPT
OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains the global leader in in-app revenue across all markets, with the notable exception of China, where DeepSeek has outperformed it in immediate post-launch downloads. ChatGPT’s “stickiness”—the frequency of user interaction—is now comparable to established giants like X and Reddit.
Data indicates that ChatGPT users now rely on the platform for more than 12 days per month. Usage patterns have shifted, with increased weekend activity suggesting that consumers are integrating the AI assistant into their personal lives beyond professional tasks. Other notable players currently gaining traction include Character AI, PolyBuzz, and Perplexity.
The gap between ChatGPT and traditional search engines is narrowing. In H1 2025, ChatGPT recorded an average of 16 minutes of daily usage, nearing the 18.2 minutes observed for top-tier search engines and browsers. Users are increasingly leveraging the tool for lifestyle tasks, including meal planning, health advice, and personal finance, with over one-third of Q2 prompts dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment categories.
The “AI” Labeling Strategy
The term “AI” has become a pervasive marketing tool, appearing over 100,000 times in app descriptions on major app stores. Apps explicitly mentioning “AI” accounted for 7.5 billion downloads in the first half of 2025, representing roughly 10% of total app store volume.
While adding “AI” or “LLM” to an app’s title often triggers a short-term boost in downloads, market analysts note that this is frequently a temporary phenomenon. The trend is most prominent in categories such as photo editing, nutrition, tutoring, and translation services, where developers are rushing to signal technological relevance to potential users.
