Anthropic’s chatbot Claude appears to be benefiting from the attention surrounding the company’s difficult negotiations with the Department of Defense.
As first reported by CNBC, Claude has risen to the top of the free app rankings on Apple’s U.S. App Store. It overtook OpenAI’s ChatGPT to take the number one spot on Saturday evening, and held the position on Sunday morning.
According to SensorTower data, Claude was just outside the top 100 at the end of January, but spent most of February in the top 20. It has rapidly risen in the rankings over the past few days, reaching 6th place on Wednesday, 4th place on Thursday, and 1st place on Saturday.
A company spokesperson said daily registrations have broken new records every day this week, free users have increased more than 60% since January, and paid subscribers have more than doubled this year.
After Anthropic sought to negotiate safeguards that would prevent the Pentagon from using its AI models for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to halt all use of Anthropic’s products and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was designating the company as a supply chain threat.
OpenAI later announced its own agreement with the Department of Defense, which CEO Sam Altman claimed included domestic surveillance and safeguards related to autonomous weapons.
This post was first published on February 28, 2026. Updated to reflect Anthropic’s No. 1 ranking and include growth numbers for the company.
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