Background: ChatGPT burst onto the scene in November 2022 and instantly became the breakout AI chatbot, well ahead of rivals like Claude, Perplexity and DeepSeek. And while plenty of challengers have entered the chat, none have matched ChatGPT’s mainstream traction.

What happened: ChatGPT has officially topped Apple’s annual list of most-downloaded free iPhone apps, beating out TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Google Maps and even Gmail. That’s a massive leap from last year where it ranked fourth… and it didn’t even crack the top ten back in 2023. Apple also crowned Block Blast! as the top free game and Minecraft as the best-selling paid app.

What else: The ranking makes one thing crystal clear: AI chatbots have shifted from party trick to everyday utility.

What's the key learning?

💡In technology, becoming the default option is often more powerful than being the best option. Once a product becomes the automatic first step in someone’s workflow, it builds a moat that’s incredibly hard for competitors to cross, just like Google Search, Gmail and Google Maps before it.

💡ChatGPT hitting #1 shows it is becoming a new default behaviour. People are increasingly asking instead of searching. And it's clear that ChatGPT has reset how people navigate the internet.

💡But it also has a compounding effect because the more people rely on ChatGPT, the faster OpenAI can improve it. Every query feeds more data, more preferences and more behavioural signals. So while ChatGPT continues to dominate, it's a bit of a wake up call for Google and their decades of dominance.