# AI Companion Apps Have Been Downloaded 165 Million Times Since ChatGPT Launched, Appfigures Finds

The virtual-partner category, much of it explicit, has become a measurable consumer market with real spending, per data cited by Decrypt.

- Published: 2026-07-17T05:29:37.841Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-07-17/ai-companion-apps-have-been-downloaded-165-million-times-sin
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Polylog editors](https://polylog.news)

Virtual-partner applications have been downloaded about 165 million times across the App Store and Google Play since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the AI ML Big Data channel reports, citing analytics firm Appfigures via Decrypt. The figure…

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