Gen AI app downloads reached 1.5 billion in 2024 — Report

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) app downloads rose to 1.5 billion in 2024 compared to 800 million reported in 2023, according to a report by SensorTower.

The report titled “The State of Mobile 2024,’ revealed that in 2024, apps mentioning AI-related terms in their names, subtitles, or descriptions amassed more than 17 billion downloads globally, an increase from 5 billion downloads in 2019.

“This accounted for 13 percent of all app downloads that year. Key markets contributing over a billion downloads each included India, the United States, China Mainland, Indonesia, and Brazil,” it said.

In late 2022, the world witnessed the rise of generative AI applications, driven by the debut of ChatGPT. Since then, interest in these technologies has surged, resulting in growth in in-app purchase (IAP) revenue and downloads.

According to SensorTower data, IAP revenue for AI chatbot and AI art generator apps soared from $30 million in 2022 to $455 million in 2023, and nearly $1.3 billion by 2024.

The report said the United States emerged as the dominant market for generative AI apps in 2024, accounting for 45 percent of global revenue, the United Kingdom (4 percent), Germany (4 percent), Japan (3 percent), and Canada (3 percent) followed, reflecting a strong adoption of AI technology in developed markets.

Brazil ranked as the seventh-largest market for generative AI apps despite not being a top 10 market for overall mobile consumer spending. Conversely, China Mainland lagged, contributing less than 2 percent of IAP revenue for this genre in 2024.

It said that while AI chatbots remain the most popular subgenre, some of the world’s biggest tech companies have launched their own AI chatbots, including Google Gemini, ByteDance’s Doubao, and Microsoft Copilot.

“This influx of competition spurred rapid growth in the sector, with AI chatbot downloads climbing 119 percent year-over-year (YoY) in Q4 2024. Although AI art generators experienced slower growth, they still achieved 85 million downloads, up 21 percent YoY,” it stated.

However, ChatGPT maintained its position as the market leader, commanding 40 percent of global generative AI consumer spend and 23 percent of total downloads in 2024.

ChatGPT’s mobile adoption has skyrocketed since its launch, with monthly active users (MAUs) increasing by 500 percent YoY to more than 160 million in Q3 2024.

Among apps released in the past three years, ChatGPT was the third-fastest to reach 50 million MAUs globally, achieving the milestone just five months after its launch in May 2023, this growth came despite the app’s delayed release on Google Play in July 2023, several months after its iOS debut.

16 different generative AI apps also achieved at least $10 million in IAP revenue in 2024, while 25 surpassed 10 million downloads.

On the other hand, developers are increasingly incorporating AI features into apps across various categories. From travel to education to social networking, the possibilities for integrating generative AI are vast.

“App developers have also shown agility, with the number of apps adding AI-related terms to their names or descriptions more than doubling in 2023 compared to 2022.

“Even as the growth rate of AI-themed apps slowed in 2024, interest remained robust. Over 3,000 apps introduced AI-related terms in 2024, spanning 15 different categories, including productivity, photo & video, lifestyle, finance, and music,” it said.