As of early March 2026, Anthropic’s Claude had over one million daily global signups, marking a significant change in the AI landscape. If the trend holds, it may soon surpass other AI leaders, including OpenAI. Due to this increase, Claude has officially overtaken ChatGPT in download rankings and is now the top free app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in the US and other countries.
Users appear to be searching for better AI models for their own diverse use cases, which is a new trend. A recent report from Anthropic claims that the company is witnessing a huge increase in the number of people setting up Claude AI accounts in order to utilise its conversational and generative models.
Anthropic states that “more than a million people are now signing up every day,” although it doesn’t provide exact data. According to recent data, the Claude AI software has emerged as the top free program on the Google Play Store and software store in the US and other countries; thus, that figure corresponds to signups worldwide. According to AppFigures at the time of writing, it places it directly above ChatGPT.
Below are the top four apps & games that are regarded as free, paid and grossing from Appfigures. As seen, it is also placed directly above ChatGPT.
This coincides with the debate surrounding OpenAI’s official cooperation with the US Department of War to use AI for sensitive applications. It appears that Anthropic and Google personnel were reluctant to undertake this without strict safeguards in place.
OpenAI asserts that its safety protocols are adequate, pointing out that neither ChatGPT nor internal models can be utilised for mass surveillance or the deployment of autonomous weaponry. The corporation claims to have “been working hard to ensure that a classified deployment can happen with safeguards to ensure that red lines are not crossed” after first declining the opportunity due to inadequate safety precautions.
Since then, the DoD has classified Anthropic as a “supply chain risk”, which it intends to contest in court. According to the Anthropic, neither it nor any other company participates in operational decision-making about autonomous weaponry and mass surveillance.
Claude appears to be experiencing more user activity on ChatGPT as Anthropic signups reach all-time highs as a result of the repercussions. By the end of February 2026, OpenAI had over 50 million consumer customers and 900 million weekly active users.
The important growth factors as observed in Claude’s quick acceptance are ascribed to a number of noteworthy occasions:
Political & Ethical Defection: Following OpenAI’s $200 million deal with the U.S. Department of War (DOW), thousands of users allegedly moved to Claude, resulting in a 295% increase in ChatGPT uninstalls over the course of a single weekend.
Anthropic’s Position: Privacy-conscious users responded favourably to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s public opposition to governments’ unchecked use of AI, citing dangers including mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Product Innovation: Developers’ and power users’ interest was greatly increased by the introduction of features like Claude Code and the 1 million token context window (Paprika Mode).
As seen above is a comparison of Anthropic Claude with OpenAI ChatGPT, as both apps are those that top the US App Store rankings.
Although ChatGPT continues to have more downloads overall in 2026, the trend has changed; in February alone, Claude’s US downloads increased by 240% month over month.
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