Meta's Muse Spark sent its AI app soaring up the App Store rankings

In a significant boost for Meta, the company's AI application has surged in popularity, marking a notable increase in daily web visitors in the United States. Recent estimates from Sensor Tower indicate that the Meta AI app experienced an impressive 46,000 downloads, representing an astonishing 87% increase in just one day on the US Apple App Store. As of Thursday evening, this AI assistant app has ascended to the 6th position among the most-downloaded free applications, a remarkable leap from its average ranking of 65 over the previous month. The excitement surrounding Meta's latest AI model, Muse Spark, has not only captivated users in the US; it has also led to a significant rise in downloads in other countries, including Canada, the UK, France, and Germany, where day-over-day increases reached 51%, 32%, 27%, and 25%, respectively. Muse Spark is the inaugural AI model launched by Meta's Superintelligence Labs, following substantial investments by the company in AI technologies, including a notable $14 billion investment in Scale AI, which facilitated the recruitment of co-founder Alexandr Wang. Wall Street analysts responded positively to this news, resulting in a rise in Meta's stock prices. Meta described Muse Spark as a pivotal milestone in their scaling strategy and the first output of a comprehensive reengineering of their AI initiatives. Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower, revealed that prior to this surge, Meta's AI app had not managed to break into the top 10 of the US Apple App Store for over 90 days. Its peak ranking of 2nd occurred back on April 30, 2025, coinciding with its initial launch. This remarkable growth underscores the trend of AI companies leveraging viral moments to gain traction in the competitive generative AI market, where OpenAI's ChatGPT currently reigns. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT boasts 900 million weekly users. Competing AI model Claude from Anthropic briefly overtook ChatGPT in the App Store rankings, fueled by recent public support after the Pentagon's decision to blacklist Anthropic. Overall, AI applications continue to dominate the App Store landscape, with four out of the top six most-downloaded free apps being AI-related. In this competitive arena, Meta's AI app takes the 6th spot, while Google Gemini and Anthropic's Claude follow closely behind. ChatGPT, despite losing its crown, remains a strong contender at 2nd place, just behind the Augusta National's Masters Tournament App, which launched its coverage of golf's prestigious event on Thursday.