Claude Surges Past ChatGPT in Downloads After Anthropic's Pentagon Standoff
Anthropicís Claude has overtaken OpenAIís ChatGPT in U.S. Daily app downloads and is recording explosive growth in active users, following a very public dispute between the AI company and the Pentagon that appears to have resonated strongly with consumers.
According to app intelligence provider Appfigures, Claude registered approximately 149,000 daily downloads in the United States on March 2, compared with 124,000 for ChatGPT on the same date. The divergence in download figures marks a notable shift in a market that OpenAI has long dominated.
The backdrop to this reversal is a confrontation between Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense. Chief executive Dario Amodei refused to allow the government to deploy Claudeís systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon's response was to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk, a designation that has evidently done more to burnish the companyís reputation among consumers than to damage it.
User Growth Accelerates
The download figures tell only part of the story. Market intelligence firm Similarweb found that Claudeís combined iOS and Android daily active user base reached 11.3 million on March 2, representing a 183% increase from the start of the year, when the figure stood at around 4 million. At the beginning of February, daily active users numbered approximately 5 million, suggesting much of the acceleration occurred in the weeks immediately surrounding the Pentagon controversy.
Anthropicís own figures, offered through a spokesperson, are consistent with that trajectory. The company said daily active users have more than tripled since the beginning of 2026 and that paid subscribers have doubled. The company also reported that Claude broke its own sign-up record every day since early last week in every country where the service is available, and that it is now recording more than 1 million sign-ups per day.
Claude reached the top position on the U.S. App Store over the past weekend, a ranking it still holds. The app also holds the number one position in 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Singapore and several other European markets.
Web Traffic Shifts
The momentum extends beyond mobile. Similarweb data show that Claudeís web traffic rose 43% month-over-month in February and was up 297.7% year-over-year. At least some of that growth appears to be coming at the direct expense of ChatGPT, whose web traffic declined 6.5% month-over-month over the same period. Googleís Gemini recorded a more modest gain of 2.1%, slower than in previous months.
Despite these gains, ChatGPTís overall scale remains substantially larger. Similarweb puts ChatGPTís daily active users on March 2 at 250.5 million across iOS and Android, a figure that dwarfs Claudeís 11.3 million. OpenAIís application continues to lead all AI apps by a significant margin, and Claudeís current position ahead of rivals such as Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot in daily active users still leaves it well behind the market leader.
ChatGPTís difficulties have not been limited to slower growth. A separate report cited by TechCrunch found that ChatGPT app uninstalls surged by 295% in the period, a figure that has drawn attention from analysts and commentators examining whether OpenAIís decision to pursue closer ties with the U.S. Government is generating a meaningful consumer backlash.
The Ethical Dividend
The speed and scale of Claudeís ascent has prompted observers to consider whether Anthropicís public stance on AI safety and its refusal of the Pentagon contract represents not only a principled position but also a commercially effective one. Consumer sentiment, at least in this instance, appears to have favored the company that drew a line.
Anthropicís growth surge began later in February, timed closely around the news of its negotiations with the Pentagon, a factor that Similarweb notes is relevant to interpreting the trajectory. Should current trends extend through March, the firm noted, Claude could rank higher still among AI applications by daily active user count.
Anthropicís spokesperson declined to comment on the third-party data specifically, but confirmed the broader picture of rapid growth the figures describe.
