U.S. uninstalls of ChatGPT’s mobile app jumped 295% on Saturday, February 28, as consumers reacted to news of OpenAI’s partnership with the Department of Defense, now rebranded under the Trump administration as the Department of War.
The data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower represents a sizable increase compared with ChatGPT’s typical day-over-day uninstall rate of 9% measured over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, U.S. downloads for OpenAI competitor Anthropic’s Claude jumped 37% on Friday, February 27, and 51% by Saturday after the company announced it would not partner with the U.S. defense department. Anthropic said it could not agree on deal terms over concerns that AI would be used to surveil Americans and in fully autonomous weaponry, which AI is not yet ready to do safely.
ChatGPT’s download growth was impacted by the DoD partnership news, with U.S. downloads dropping 13% on Saturday shortly after the deal went public. Downloads continued falling on Sunday, down 5%. Before the partnership was announced, the app’s downloads had grown 14% on Friday. These rapid changes were reflected in Claude’s App Store ranking, as the app hit No. 1 on the U.S. App Store on Saturday, where it continues to sit as of Monday, March 2, a jump of over 20 ranks compared with roughly a week before.
Consumers are also sharing opinions about OpenAI’s deal in the app’s ratings, where 1-star reviews for ChatGPT surged 775% on Saturday, then grew 100% on Sunday. Five-star reviews declined during the same period, dropping 50%. Other third-party data providers back up Sensor Tower’s findings. Appfigures noted that Claude’s total daily U.S. downloads on Saturday surpassed ChatGPT’s for the first time and saw U.S. downloads of Claude increase by 88%. Claude is now the No. 1 free iPhone app in six countries outside the U.S., including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.
Similarweb said Claude’s U.S. downloads over the past week were around 20 times what they were in January, though it cautioned that could stem from reasons beyond political issues. The user exodus reflects growing consumer concern about how major tech companies deploy AI technology and whether partnerships with military agencies align with their values.
