In the first half of 2025, generative AI apps are experiencing incredible growth in both downloads and in-app revenue, a report from market intelligence company Sensor Tower said. Users downloaded the Genai app 1.7 billion times in H2 2024 compared to 1 billion people. These apps doubled in-app revenue, resulting in $1.87 billion in 2025, compared to $932 million in H2 in 2024.
The report noted that users spent over 15.6 billion hours on the Genai app in the first half of 2025, jumping from 8.5 billion hours on H2 2024. This time it recorded more than 426 billion sessions.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
Asia is the fastest growing market for Genai apps, taking the market share lead on 42.6% downloads thanks to markets such as India and mainland China. Download growth in Asia was 80% in H1 2025 compared to 51% in Europe and 39% in North America.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
Latam has registered the highest growth for in-app purchases for Genai Apps, but North America still holds the lead in terms of 40% market share.
Continuous growth of ChatGpt
Sensor Tower pointed out that ChatGpt is the leading app for in-app revenue in China for all country bars. However, China's Deepseek performed better in terms of download count in the weeks since its launch.
Also, people are spending more time with various AI assistants, with ChatGpt leading the pack. People used the app on average for more than 12 days in one month in H1. Other popular apps were Character AI, PolyBuzz, Deepseek and confusion.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
The stickiness of ChatGpt is impressive. According to Sensor Tower, people use Openai's apps as much as X and Reddit. Only Google has a better rate for the average number of days per month. The report also said it has improved the use of ChatGpt over the weekend compared to last year, indicating that people rely on AI-powered chat apps beyond their work.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
“With this development, app usage patterns are similar to Google's use. Consumers rely on as the primary search tool for both working and off-hours,” the report states.
Over time, the gap between using CHATGPT and using apps in the top search engine and browser categories has decreased. For example, in H1 2025, CHATGPT averaged 16 minutes of daily usage compared to 18.2 minutes on top search engines and browsers.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
Beyond searching, users use ChatGpt for advice on Health and Wellness, Shopping, Personal Finance, and Meal Prep. The report states that more than a third of the prompts used in ChatGPT in the second quarter of 2025 are related to lifestyle and entertainment.
Sensor Tower noted that ChatGPT is attracting users both on mobile apps and on platforms. Over 15% of US CHATGPT users say they have access to the web and mobile higher than other platforms like Temu and Threads. ChatGpt shows progress, but it's behind other platforms like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Google Docs and Amazon, with over 25% of users accessing the service both on the web and on the Mobile.
The app literally adds “AI”
Intelligence companies say in their report that the term AI has now appeared in APP descriptions more than 100,000 times in both the App Store and Play Store. Users have downloaded an app that mentions AI 7.5 billion times on H1 2025.
Over the past 12 months, there has been an increasing number of apps in categories such as AI Assistant, AI Content Generation, Photo Editing, Nutrition & Dieting, Test Preparation, Personalized Teaching and Study, Translation, and other Hobbies and Interest Services.
As the number of apps in top charts in various categories is increasing, there is an “AI” in the name. However, this addition has a short-term boost to downloads.
Image credit: Sensor Tower
“Unsurprisingly, apps that added terms like “AI” or “LLM” to their app names or descriptions have experienced a noticeable boost to downloads over the next few months,” Sensor Tower said.