SensorTower stated that 2023 was a year of explosive growth in AI applications globally, and in 2024, driven by the strong performance of top AI applications, the overall revenue in the first 8 months increased by 51% compared to the previous year, and it is expected that the full-year revenue in 2024 will reach $3.3 billion.

The revenue from AI applications surged in 2024.

After the explosive growth in 2023, the AI application market became more mature in 2024. Thanks to the strong growth of top applications, the global AI application revenue in the first 8 months of 2024 surged by 51% to $2 billion compared to the previous year, and it is expected that the full-year revenue in 2024 will reach $3.3 billion.

AI applications are widely downloaded and used by users all over the world, but the revenue mainly comes from the North American market. In terms of download volume, India became the largest market for AI application downloads in 2024, contributing 21% of the total download volume. The North American market contributed 47% of the total global AI application revenue, making it the most profitable market for AI applications.

"ChatGPT" leads the global AI application market.

The Top 30 AI application downloads list in 2024 is dominated by Chatbot applications and image editing applications.

In terms of download volume, revenue, and active user base, OpenAI's "ChatGPT" is undoubtedly the champion of the AI application market. From January to August 2024, "ChatGPT" was downloaded more than 0.16 billion times, with revenue close to $0.23 billion. By August 2024, the cumulative revenue of "ChatGPT" exceeded $0.27 billion, and the monthly active users exceeded 0.19 billion.

Bending Spoons' image editing app "Remini" became popular on major social networks due to its AI portrait generation function and AI clay filter. From January to August 2024, it has been downloaded more than 0.12 billion times, ranking second on the download chart. As of August 2024, the global cumulative download of "Remini" has reached 0.45 billion times, with in-app purchase revenue exceeding 0.2 billion USD.

"Google Gemini", "Microsoft Copilot", and "Chatbot AI & Smart Assistant" and other three new AI applications ranked 4th, 8th, and 9th on the list.

The Chatbot application "Dou Bao" from ByteDance ranks fifth on the download chart and is the only Chinese AI application on the list. Byte series AI applications that made it into the top 30 of the download chart also include the image editing app "Hypic" and the AI education app "Gauth".

Turkish mobile app publisher Codeway Dijital has four AI applications, including "Chatbot AI & Smart Assistant", "Chat & Ask AI by Codeway", "Retake AI: Face & Photo Editor", and "Face Dance: AI Photo Animator", that made it to the download chart.

The global AI+Chatbot application revenue from January to August 2024 has surpassed the full-year revenue of 2023 by 1.5 times.

2023 was a year of explosive growth for global AI+Chatbot applications, with downloads increasing by more than 14 times compared to 2022, reaching almost 0.6 billion times. From January to August 2024, AI+Chatbot application downloads surpassed 0.63 billion times, exceeding the 2023 full-year level.

In the first 8 months of 2024, global AI+Chatbot application in-app purchase revenue reached nearly 0.58 billion USD, already surpassing 1.5 times the full-year revenue of 2023.

Companion AI applications are popular among young users.

With the development of AI+Chatbot applications, emotion-based AI companionship is gradually emerging. The top application 'Character AI' reached a record high of 22 million MAU in August 2024, with nearly 19 million downloads from January to August, making it a leading player in the segmented market. From a global perspective, 'Talkie AI' closely follows 'Character AI' with 17 million downloads, but in the US market, 'Talkie AI' has surpassed 'Character AI' in terms of downloads.

Emotion-based AI applications are highly favored by young users. The top applications 'Character AI', 'Talkie AI', 'Linky AI', and 'HiWaifu' all have user ratios of over 70% among users aged 18-35, with 'Character AI' having a particularly high ratio of 66% among users aged 18-24.

Different emotion-based AI applications have different user gender distributions. Female users prefer 'Character AI' and 'Talkie AI', while 'Linky AI' and 'HiWaifu' are more appealing to male users.

Special Note: This report only includes estimated IAP values from app stores and does not include revenue from advertising monetization and third-party Android channels in China.

Editor/ping