A new report, “State of AI 2026,” from the analytics firm Sensor Tower shows that the AI market is rapidly evolving from a single-product story into a fully-fledged competitive industry.
ChatGPT remains the leader, but its share of the global audience has fallen below 50% for the first time, while Google Gemini and Claude are rapidly closing the gap.
This means that the key to success is no longer just the quality of the language model, but also the capabilities of the ecosystem, service integration, and user experience.
The Monopoly Is Ending
In three and a half years, ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing consumer digital service in history, the report notes. In May 2026, the app became the first generative AI service to surpass the 1 billion monthly active users mark, outpacing the growth rates of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
However, the main finding of the new Sensor Tower study was not yet another achievement by OpenAI, but a shift in the market structure.
According to analysts, in May, the True Audience metric—which takes into account the combined audience of mobile apps and web versions of services—showed ChatGPT’s share falling below the psychologically significant 50% mark for the first time.
Who’s Dominating the Global Generative AI Market Today
| Platform | Approximate share of the global audience* |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | 46.4% |
| Gemini (Google) | 27.7% |
| Claude (Anthropic) | 10.3% |
| DeepSeek | about 5% |
| Grok (xAI) | about 3% |
| Perplexity | about 2% |
| Meta AI and others | about 5–6% |
*Sensor Tower (True Audience) estimate, taking into account the audience of mobile apps and web versions of services. Data as of May 2026.
Just a year ago, the generative AI market was virtually synonymous with a single product—ChatGPT. Today, nearly half of all users still choose OpenAI’s service, but more than half of the global audience is already using alternative platforms.
This is a significant milestone for the young industry: the market is shifting from single-player dominance to a fully competitive model.
Why Gemini and Claude Are Gaining Ground
Google Gemini is emerging as OpenAI’s most serious competitor. Analysts attribute its rapid growth not only to improvements in its language model but also to the deep integration of artificial intelligence into Google’s ecosystem—including its search engine, Android, Gmail, Workspace, and other services. Billions of users gain access to Gemini with virtually no extra effort, giving the company a significant competitive advantage.
Anthropic’s Claude is growing even faster. Over the past year, the service’s user base has more than quadrupled. Claude is actively used for working with long documents, programming, and corporate tasks, which has allowed it to carve out a solid niche among professional users.
At the same time, three platforms—ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek—continue to dominate the market in terms of usage time, accounting for nearly 90% of all user activity in generative AI.
Key Market Players and Their Strategies
| Company | Main Focus |
| OpenAI | General-purpose AI assistant and enterprise services |
| AI integration into Search, Android, and Workspace | |
| Anthropic | Enterprise solutions and handling complex documents |
| xAI | Integration with the X platform and Elon Musk’s ecosystem |
| DeepSeek | Open-source models and low cost of use |
| Perplexity | AI-powered information search |
Competition is reaching a new level
The authors of the report believe that the generative AI market is entering a new phase of development. While OpenAI’s technological superiority was the key factor for success in 2023–2024, users now choose services based on ease of use, subscription cost, integration with familiar digital platforms, and the specialization of a particular model.
This is precisely why ChatGPT’s market share falling below the symbolic 50% mark does not signal a decline for OpenAI. The company remains the market’s largest player. However, it now has to compete not only on the quality of its language model but also against the ecosystems of the world’s largest technology corporations.
In essence, the Sensor Tower report marks the end of the first chapter in the history of generative artificial intelligence.
Until now, the main question was: Can anyone catch up to ChatGPT? Now the question has shifted: Will OpenAI be able to maintain its leadership as Google, Anthropic, xAI, and other players integrate artificial intelligence into their own digital ecosystems?
