A significant surge in U.S. uninstalls of the ChatGPT mobile app occurred on Saturday, February 28, with a 295% day-over-day increase. This consumer reaction followed the announcement of OpenAI's new partnership with the Department of Defense, which was rebranded as the Department of War under the Trump administration. According to data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower, this spike is substantial when compared to the app's typical 30-day average uninstall rate of just 9%.

Conversely, downloads for OpenAI's competitor, Anthropic's Claude, saw a notable rise. U.S. downloads increased by 37% day-over-day on Friday, February 27, and by 51% on Saturday, February 28. This growth came after Anthropic publicly stated it would not pursue a partnership with the U.S. defense department. The company explained it could not agree to terms due to ethical concerns, specifically the potential use of AI for domestic surveillance and in fully autonomous weapon systems—applications it believes current AI technology cannot manage safely. The data indicates a segment of consumers supported Anthropic's stance on this issue.

The news of the Department of Defense partnership also negatively impacted ChatGPT's download growth. Its U.S. downloads fell by 13% day-over-day on Saturday immediately after the deal became public, and continued to decline by another 5% on Sunday. Prior to the announcement, the app had experienced positive growth, with downloads up 14% day-over-day on Friday.

These rapid shifts in user behavior were mirrored in Claude's App Store performance. The app reached the number one position on the U.S. App Store by Saturday and maintained that rank as of Monday, March 2. This represents an ascent of over 20 ranks from its position roughly a week earlier, on February 22.

User sentiment was also expressed directly through app ratings. Sensor Tower reported a 775% surge in 1-star reviews for ChatGPT on Saturday, followed by a further 100% increase on Sunday. During the same period, 5-star reviews for the app declined by 50%. These findings are supported by other third-party data providers.

For example, Appfigures noted that Claude's total daily U.S. downloads on Saturday exceeded those of ChatGPT for the first time. Its estimates for Claude's growth were even higher, reporting an 88% day-over-day increase in U.S. downloads on Saturday.

The provider also highlighted that Claude is now the top free iPhone app in six countries, including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, and the U.S. A third intelligence firm, Similarweb, added that Claude's U.S. downloads over the past week were approximately 20 times higher than in January. However, it cautioned that factors beyond the current political issues may have contributed to this increase.