ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot, has reached a new milestone, becoming the world's most downloaded app in March, excluding games. According to app intelligence provider Appfigures, ChatGPT's installs surged 28% from February to March, reaching 46 million new downloads during the month. This marks the app's biggest month ever and the first time it has topped the monthly download charts.

The significant growth in downloads pushed ChatGPT ahead of Instagram, which fell to the No. 2 position, and TikTok, which followed at No. 3. Notably, ChatGPT's installs have grown 148% year-over-year when comparing the first quarter of 2021 to Q1 2025.

Several factors contributed to ChatGPT's success in March. The app received some notable upgrades, including the first major upgrade to its image-generation capabilities in over a year. This led to a viral moment for ChatGPT in late March and early April as users discovered they could generate images and memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the popular Japanese animation studio. OpenAI also removed some safeguards around content moderation policies for images and upgraded ChatGPT's AI voice feature.

However, Appfigures founder and CEO Ariel Michaeli believes that new features weren't the main driver behind this month's growth for the popular chatbot. Instead, he attributes ChatGPT's success to its growing brand recognition, which has become synonymous with AI. "It's starting to feel like ChatGPT is becoming a verb, a lot like how Google did in the 2000s, to the point where many don't think 'AI' but rather 'ChatGPT,'" Michaeli said.

This brand recognition may make it harder for other AI chatbots to take off. For instance, Anthropic's Claude has poorer performance on this front than ChatGPT. On the other hand, Grok could do better than other ChatGPT rivals due to its association with Elon Musk and its large platform for distribution with X.

In contrast, Instagram had previously held the No. 2 spot across both the Apple App Store and Google Play in January and February of this year, while TikTok remained No. 1. However, TikTok's download growth earlier this year was driven by concerns over a potential U.S. ban, which has since been put on hold.

Instagram's popularity in the U.S. market has been growing, remaining a favorite among U.S. teens. A new survey of U.S. teens by Piper Sandler released this week found that Instagram is the most-used social app, with 87% monthly usage, compared with 79% for TikTok and 72% for Snapchat.

In March, other social apps, including those from Meta, rounded out the top charts, with Facebook and WhatsApp filling out the top 5, and others like CapCut, Telegram, Snapchat, and Meta's Threads in the top 10, alongside Temu. The top 10 apps were downloaded a collective 339 million times in March, higher than February's 299 million.

ChatGPT's surge to the top spot highlights the growing interest in AI technology and its potential to disrupt various industries. As AI chatbots continue to evolve and improve, it will be interesting to see how they impact the tech landscape and shape the future of human-AI interaction.