Heightened public attention around defense negotiations appears to have boosted downloads for Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude. The app has climbed to the No. 1 position in the free app rankings on Apple’s U.S. App Store. On Saturday evening, Claude overtook ChatGPT by OpenAI and continued to hold the top spot on Sunday morning.
According to app analytics data cited by a media outlet, Claude was ranked just outside the top 100 at the end of January. Through most of February, it remained within the top 20. In recent days, the rise accelerated sharply. The app moved from 6th on Wednesday to 4th on Thursday and then surged to 1st place by Saturday. Data from Sensor Tower supports this rapid growth trend.
A company spokesperson said daily signups have broken all-time records every day this week. Free users have increased by more than 60% since January, while paid subscribers have more than doubled this year. The surge in downloads and subscriptions comes as the company faces high-profile discussions linked to national security use of AI.
The momentum follows Anthropic’s attempt to negotiate safeguards preventing the U.S. Department of Defense from using its AI models for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. After talks stalled, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic products and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain threat. Soon after, OpenAI announced its own Pentagon agreement, with CEO Sam Altman stating that the deal includes safeguards related to domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
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