Revenue Leaders, Download Shifts, and the AI Apps Pushing New Records

October delivered another steady month in the global app market with revenue holding strong and downloads rising across most major platforms. The data from AppFigures points to a market that is still moving toward AI, yet traditional entertainment and utility apps continue to secure large audiences. Three sets of figures define the month. Earnings at the top of the charts, download activity across both major stores, and the performance of the main AI apps that now shape much of the industry.

Top Earners in October

TikTok led global revenue once again. Appfigures Intelligence estimates it generated 316 million dollars after platform fees, slightly up from September. It remains far ahead of the rest of the field. ChatGPT held the second position with 187 million dollars in net revenue, an increase of roughly 13 million from the previous month. While not a record, the gain shows consistent demand during a period of heavy competition.

YouTube, Tinder, Google One, Disney Plus, CapCut, HBO Max, Peacock TV, and Tencent Video filled out the rest of the revenue chart. Among them, Google One stood out with an all-time high of 109 million dollars, driven mostly by Google Play purchases. Its steady climb shows continued interest in storage and subscription services despite a market dominated by AI tools. When combined, the ten highest earning apps collected about 1.3 billion dollars in net revenue. The figure is close to September’s total, which indicates a stable month rather than a major surge.

Most Downloaded Apps Worldwide

ChatGPT remained the most downloaded app in the world. It reached 43.1 million installs across iOS and Android in October. Most downloads came from Google Play. This continues a streak that began earlier in the year when ChatGPT overtook TikTok. The gap narrowed slightly, but no competitor has matched its scale yet.

TikTok returned to the second spot with 35.5 million downloads after Gemini’s volume dropped from September. Gemini still ranked high at 34.3 million downloads and held third place. Instagram and Facebook kept their usual strength and finished within the top five. CapCut also climbed in demand and remained one of the stronger non AI tools on the list.

Temu also showed a noticeable gain. After a period of weaker demand, it reached 19 million downloads and moved ahead of Telegram. Another development came from Perplexity, which entered the Google Play chart for the first time with 13.2 million downloads. Across the board, the ten most downloaded apps reached about 276 million installs, slightly higher than September.

AI Apps Reach a New Revenue Peak

AI apps continued to pull more attention in October, and the five leading platforms reached their strongest revenue month so far. ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity reached a combined 206 million dollars in net revenue during October. This is the highest figure the group has posted to date. ChatGPT generated most of it with 187 million dollars. Grok followed with 8.7 million dollars, which marked a fifty percent rise from September. Claude earned an estimated 5 million dollars. Perplexity reached 3.1 million dollars. Gemini closed the list with 1.7 million dollars, though its Android version does not use in-app billing, so the figure only reflects iOS transactions.

The trend shows users continue to explore multiple AI apps rather than favor a single platform. Growth patterns also resemble the early rise of streaming services where several strong players expanded at once. October’s numbers suggest this phase is still building.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools with human oversight.

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