ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal
ChatGPT mobile app takedowns in the US rose 295% day-over-day on Saturday, February 28, as consumers reacted to news of OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense (DoD), which has been rebranded under the Trump administration as the Ministry of War.
This data comes from a market information supplier Sensor towerrepresents a significant increase compared to ChatGPT’s typical daily deletion rate of 9%, measured over the past 30 days.
Meanwhile, US downloads for OpenAI competitor Anthropic’s Claude rose 37% day-over-day on Friday, February 27, and 51% as of Saturday, February 28, after the company announced it would not work with the US Department of Defense. Anthropic said it could not agree on the terms of the deal due to concerns that AI would be used to surveil Americans and be used in fully autonomous weapons, something AI is not yet ready to do safely.
The data shows that a number of consumers seemingly favored Anthropic’s position on the issue.
Additionally, ChatGPT’s download growth was impacted by news of its DoD partnership, with US downloads falling 13% on Saturday, shortly after news of the deal became public. Those downloads continued to decline on Sunday, when they fell 5% day-over-day. (Before the partnership was announced, the app’s downloads were up 14% on Friday.)
These rapid changes were also reflected in Claude’s App Store rankings, as the app reached No. 1 on the US App Store on Saturday, where it remains as of Monday, March 2. That’s a jump of more than 20 positions compared to about a week before (February 22, 2026).
Consumers are also sharing their thoughts on OpenAI’s deal in the app’s ratings, where 1-star reviews for ChatGPT rose 775% on Saturday and grew 100% day over day on Sunday, according to Sensor Tower. Five-star reviews dropped 50% over the same period.
Other third-party data providers support Sensor Tower’s findings.
App figuresfor example, noted that Claude’s total daily downloads in the US surpassed ChatGPT’s for the first time on Saturday. It also saw an increase in Claude downloads in the US, but estimates put that figure even higher, up 88% day-on-day on Saturday.
It was noted that Claude is now the #1 free iPhone app in several countries including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland and the US.
A third party provider of market information, Similarwebsaid Claude’s downloads in the US last week were about 20x higher than in January, but that could be for reasons other than just political issues, it warned.
