OpenAI's ChatGPT Dominates the AI Landscape, Capturing 80% of the Market
David ClarkeA new Similarweb report reveals that ChatGPT commands 5.5 billion monthly visits while competitors struggle to make a fraction of that.[...]
ChatGPT Dominates the Generative AI Landscape, Leaving Rivals in the Dust
The Unstoppable Rise of OpenAI's Chatbot
The latest traffic data from Similarweb reveals a stunning reality about the generative AI market: ChatGPT has already won the user adoption war by a margin so vast it defies conventional competition metrics. With 5.5 billion visits in May 2025, ChatGPT commands roughly 80% of all generative AI traffic, surpassing the combined visits of Google's Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, and Claude.
Resilience and Rapid Growth
What's particularly noteworthy is ChatGPT's resilience. Despite a brief dip in traffic early in 2025, OpenAI quickly reversed the trend, surging back to new heights. The chatbot's mobile app already averaged more than 250 million monthly active users between September and November 2024, showcasing its rapid growth and widespread adoption.
The Feisty Upstart: DeepSeek's Impressive Rise
Another surprising data point is the meteoric rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek. Banned on most U.S. government-issued devices and many institutions due to concerns over data sharing with China, DeepSeek rocketed from 33.7 million monthly users in January to 436 million visits by May – a 13x increase that would make venture capitalists weep with envy.
DeepSeek's success is even more impressive considering it operates at a fraction of the cost of Western models, with its input tokens costing just $0.55 compared to OpenAI's $15. The company's geographic dominance tells a compelling story, with China, India, and Indonesia accounting for over 51% of its users.
The Struggle for Second Place
While OpenAI may lose in some benchmarks, it has already crossed the finish line in the race for global adoption. The real competition now is for second place, as evidenced by the mixed performance of rivals like Google's Gemini and Amazon/Google's Claude.
Gemini's 527.7 million visits barely edge out DeepSeek, despite every conceivable advantage, including billions in funding, integration across Google's ecosystem, and access to more users than any platform on Earth. Meanwhile, Claude, despite its technical superiority in many benchmarks and constant praise from AI researchers, attracted less than 100 million visits in May 2025.
The Shifting Landscape and Implications
The Similarweb data delivers a brutal truth to the AI industry: technical superiority means little without user adoption. ChatGPT's focus on being useful has paid off, while competitors' emphasis on benchmark scores and safety protocols has left them trailing behind.
The rise of generative AI is already disrupting traditional internet businesses, with Chegg, Quora, and freelance platforms like Fiverr experiencing significant traffic declines as users flock to ChatGPT for their needs. Conversely, DevOps and code completion tools, voice generation platforms, and automation tools have seen surging growth.
As the AI industry grapples with this new reality, the question remains: who will emerge as the true contenders in the race for second place, and how will the landscape continue to evolve in the face of ChatGPT's dominance?
