Author: TechCrunch / Sensor Tower

Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: The news of OpenAI collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense (which was renamed "Department of War" under the Trump administration) triggered a strong backlash among users.

At the same time, Anthropic gained user trust by refusing to cooperate, with Claude's daily downloads surging and topping the App Store. This set of data directly quantifies the real impact of AI ethical stances on user behavior.

The full text is as follows:

On February 28 (Saturday), the number of U.S. users uninstalling the ChatGPT mobile app surged by 295% compared to the previous day. This reaction directly stemmed from the news of OpenAI signing a collaboration agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)—which has been renamed "Department of War" during Trump's administration.

This data comes from market research firm Sensor Tower. Compared to the average uninstall rate of 9% for ChatGPT over the past 30 days, the 295% single-day increase is a significant anomaly.

Meanwhile, OpenAI's competitor Anthropic saw a reverse growth in the downloads of Claude in the U.S. On February 27 (Friday), downloads rose by 37% compared to the previous day, and on February 28 (Saturday), they further increased by 51%. Previously, Anthropic announced its refusal to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Defense, citing inability to agree on collaboration terms—Anthropic was concerned that AI would be used to monitor U.S. citizens and for fully autonomous weapon systems that lack safe capabilities.

The data indicates that a considerable number of users tend to support Anthropic's stance on this issue.

ChatGPT's download volume was also affected. Following the announcement of the collaboration news on the subsequent Saturday, its downloads in the U.S. decreased by 13% compared to the previous day. The decline continued into Sunday, with another drop of 5%. In comparison, on the Friday before the collaboration news was announced, the app had recorded a 14% day-over-day increase in downloads.

These rapid changes were also reflected in Claude's App Store ranking. On Saturday, Claude reached the number one spot on the U.S. App Store free apps chart, maintaining this position as of March 2 (Monday). This is an increase of over 20 ranks compared to about a week earlier (February 22, 2026).

Users also expressed their attitude toward OpenAI's decision to collaborate in app ratings. Sensor Tower data indicated that the number of 1-star reviews for ChatGPT surged by 775% on Saturday, and further increased by 100% on Sunday; meanwhile, 5-star reviews declined by 50% during the same period.

Data from other third-party providers confirmed Sensor Tower's findings.

For instance, Appfigures noted that on Saturday, Claude's total downloads in the U.S. exceeded those of ChatGPT for the first time. The agency also observed an increase in Claude's U.S. downloads, but their estimated figures were higher: with a day-over-day increase of 88% on Saturday.

Appfigures also noted that Claude is currently topping the free iPhone app chart in six countries outside the U.S., including Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland.

The third market research firm, Similarweb, stated that in the past week, Claude's U.S. downloads were about 20 times that of January, but the firm cautioned that this may not be entirely due to political factors, as there could be other reasons.