The archive · AI & Models · Product decision · 2024–2025
Grok tops US App Store twice; xAI sues Apple over rankings
xAI's Grok hit #1 on the US App Store free chart in Feb and July 2025, then xAI sued Apple and OpenAI over rankings.
xAI
What the business is
The Grok app is xAI's consumer AI chatbot; from July 2025 it added Companion Mode — 3D characters such as Ani and Rudi that users can talk to with gestures and expressions.
How it started
xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, made Grok-3 free in February 2025; Sensor Tower data reported later showed Grok at the top of the US App Store free chart on Feb 18–19, 2025. After Apple's June 2024 Siri-OpenAI deal, Musk repeatedly claimed the App Store would never promote rival AI apps.
What happened
On July 14, 2025, xAI added Companion Mode with 3D characters to the iOS app; ITmedia reported Grok reached #1 on the App Store free ranking by around 6pm JST on July 15, 2025, with the Ani character trending on X. Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026 named Grok the 6th most-downloaded AI app of 2025. In August 2025, Musk publicly accused Apple of rigging App Store AI rankings for ChatGPT, and xAI filed an antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI in a Texas federal court.
How it ended up
Grok remains live and was one of the top AI apps by 2025 downloads; the antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI was pending as of late August 2025, with commentators pointing out that DeepSeek (Jan 2025) and Perplexity (July 2025) had also topped the US App Store after the Apple-OpenAI deal.
Background
xAI's bet was that a free, personality-driven consumer app could take on ChatGPT on its home turf: the App Store. When xAI made Grok-3 free in February 2025, Sensor Tower data later showed Grok at the #1 spot on the US free-app chart on Feb 18–19 — proof that removing the paywall at the moment the model was news was itself a distribution strategy.
The second chart-topping wave came from product, not pricing: on July 14, 2025, xAI launched Companion Mode with 3D characters such as Ani and Rudi. ITmedia reported Grok at #1 on the App Store free ranking by July 15, 2025, with the Ani character trending on X. Over the full year, Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026 ranked Grok the 6th most-downloaded AI app of 2025, behind ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Doubao and Perplexity.
The bet's unresolved edge showed in August 2025: Musk claimed Apple rigged App Store AI rankings for ChatGPT, and xAI filed an antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI. Commentators noted that DeepSeek and Perplexity had both hit #1 after the Apple-OpenAI deal, and Sensor Tower's own data contradicted the claim of a rigged chart — leaving xAI's consumer distribution bet dependent on the storefront it was suing.
What has to be true
- Making Grok-3 free at its news-cycle peak turned the app into the fastest route to try the model, driving the Feb 2025 #1 (Sensor Tower via AppleInsider).
- Ani's Companion Mode gave a sticky, shareable social hook — a character users talk to in persona — that trended on X and repeated the #1 result in July 2025 (ITmedia).
- Image generation and X integration bundled capabilities ChatGPT couldn't offer in one app, supporting a 6th-place finish in 2025 AI app downloads (Sensor Tower).
- The two #1s were spikes, not a durable moat: rankings receded afterward, and Musk's antitrust suit against Apple showed the bet still depends on a storefront xAI does not control.
What can be applied
Freeing a flagship model and shipping a sticky consumer feature can produce App Store #1s but chart spikes are distribution events, not moats — suing the storefront you depend on signals an unwon bet.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02, Grok continues to run as xAI's consumer app and was the 6th most-downloaded AI app of 2025 per Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026 (reported Jan 21, 2026). The August 2025 antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI was pending per AppleInsider, with no public resolution reported in the sources used here.
Sources
- 「金髪美少女キャラ」効果？ 「Grok」がApp Store無料ランキングで1位に
- Elon Musk baselessly suing Apple for Grok's position on the App Store
- Sensor Tower's State of Mobile 2026: TikTok dominates, AI apps surge, games lose ground
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