The mobile app for DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot in app stores around the globe this weekend, topping the U.S.-based AI chatbot, ChatGPT. On iOS, DeepSeek is currently the No. 1 free app in the U.S. App Store and 51 other countries, according to mobile app analytics firm Appfigures.
The rapid rise of the DeepSeek AI app in the app stores’ Top Charts follows its meteoric rise in popularity this week resulting from the release of a series of open AI models that are competitive with leading offerings from OpenAI and Google. However, compared to other frontier AI models, DeepSeek claims its models were trained for just a fraction of the price with significantly worse AI chips. This marks significant efficiency improvements in AI model training, leading to a sharp decline in Nvidia’s stock price on Monday and resulting in a $600 billion loss in valuation, putting the entire tech industry on high alert.
According to a new research from FinBold, DeepSeek’s popularity surged dramatically, achieving a fiftyfold increase in its Google Trends score, rising from 2 to 100 between January 20 and 27, 2025. This surge allowed DeepSeek to surpass ChatGPT in search interest, with scores of 28 compared to ChatGPT’s 25. Despite strong interest in China, with a score of 100, DeepSeek gained traction in various countries, including Singapore and Tunisia.
Download milestones for DeepSeek AI app
On Friday, DeepSeek’s mobile app had just a million downloads across both the App Store and Google Play. That number has since doubled as of Monday morning, to 2.6 million downloads of DeepSeek’s mobile app across both platforms. The app currently sits in the Top 10 list for free apps in 111 countries on the App Store and in 18 countries on Google Play, according to Appfigures.
In addition, more than 80 percent of DeepSeek’s total mobile app downloads have come in the past seven days, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. In that timeframe, DeepSeek saw nearly 300 percent more app downloads than Perplexity, another leading consumer AI app.
DeepSeek AI app’s rapid rise in rankings
DeepSeek moved into its No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store on Sunday, January 26, up from No. 31 just a couple of days prior. Meanwhile, DeepSeek is the No. 14 overall free app on Google Play, rapidly climbing up from No. 133 on January 24. As a result, daily active users jumped both globally and in the U.S. by over 110 percent from January 24 to 25 compared with the same period last week.
While China is the largest mobile app market for DeepSeek today, it represents only 23 percent of its total downloads, according to Sensor Tower. The app’s second and third largest markets are the United States, which makes up 15 percent of its total downloads, and Egypt, which makes up 6 percent of its total downloads.
DeepSeek’s rise in popularity was potentially stifled by “large-scale malicious” attacks, the company reported on Monday, which forced it to limit customers outside of China from registering for the app.
Competitive threat to tech giants
Nvidia experienced a 17 percent drop in stock value, erasing approximately $593 billion from its market capitalization, following the rapid rise of China’s AI chatbot, DeepSeek.
Launched last week, DeepSeek quickly became the most downloaded free app in the U.S., raising concerns about U.S. AI leadership and investment strategies.
The tech giant’s decline was part of a broader market selloff, which saw U.S. stocks lose over $1 trillion in value as investors reacted to the competitive threat posed by DeepSeek.
The emergence of DeepSeek, reportedly developed at a fraction of the cost of its competitors, prompted significant declines among other tech firms, including Microsoft and Google.
As Nvidia’s stock fell to $118.03, its largest one-day loss on Wall Street was highlighted, with analysts noting that the rapid rise of DeepSeek could disrupt existing AI dynamics.
Additionally, concerns about DeepSeek’s potential to deliver efficient AI solutions using less advanced hardware have prompted discussions on the future of AI investments in the U.S. President Donald Trump described this development as a “wake-up call” for the American tech industry, emphasizing the need for increased competitiveness.
