Google’s Gemini to #1 in app downloads this month and Search pursuits this week.
That is the primary time Gemini app dethrones ChatGPT.
This additionally helped increase Google’s valuation to beat $3 trillion, simply behind Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.
Google’s Gemini app hit the highest of the Apple App Retailer on September 15, dethroning ChatGPT for the primary time since OpenAI’s chatbot launched almost three years in the past. The catalyst wasn’t a breakthrough in synthetic basic intelligence or some new reasoning mode—in spite of everything, Gemini 2.5 was launched in March—it appears to be the general public’s thirst for making memes and modifying pictures.
“Picture modifying is among the hottest use circumstances for Nano Banana,” the corporate tweeted final week. Whereas Google did not present any particular causes for its come-from-behind surge in reputation, given the timing, it is secure to imagine that Nano Banana gave the corporate an enormous bump.
One particular immediate for Google’s new picture modifying mannequin let customers rework images into 3D collectible-style portraits full with plastic packaging and show bases. That was sufficient to make the Gemini have its “wen moon” second.
Inside two weeks of going viral in early September, Gemini hit #1 on each the Apple App Retailer and Google Play Retailer globally. The app added 23 million first-time customers and customers generated over half a billion pictures in days, in line with Google’s VP Josh Woodward.
Replace: Within the final 4 days, @GeminiApp has added:+ 13M extra first-time customers (23M+ whole now)+ 300M extra pictures (500M+ whole now)
🍌 @NanoBanana is unreal
— Josh Woodward (@joshwoodward) September 8, 2025
Google Tendencies knowledge exhibits international searches for Gemini overtook ChatGPT on September 12—the primary time that is occurred since ChatGPT’s November 2022 debut.
Picture: Google Tendencies
Earlier than Nano Banana, Gemini pulled in about 13 million month-to-month downloads in comparison with ChatGPT’s 64 million, in line with AppMagic. ChatGPT commanded 60% of AI-related net visitors with almost 6 billion month-to-month visits, virtually 10 instances Gemini’s numbers regardless of being built-in into Android gadgets and Google companies utilized by 2 billion folks.
The surge helped push Alphabet’s market cap previous $3 trillion, with shares climbing 4% to round $252. That places Google’s guardian firm in rarefied air alongside Nvidia ($4.3 trillion), Microsoft ($3.8 trillion), and Apple ($3.5 trillion).
Picture: companiesmarketcap.com
Alphabet’s inventory has climbed almost 30% year-to-date, outpacing the Nasdaq’s 15% acquire. The September milestone got here after a positive antitrust ruling that averted forcing Google to divest Chrome or Android. However the Nano Banana phenomenon contributed on to investor enthusiasm. Analysts venture the function may assist Google improve its income by means of new Gemini subscriptions.
“If Gemini can stay on the prime of the App Retailer charts, we consider extra traders will begin to view Gemini as a robust core providing with incremental use circumstances that complement (versus cannibalize) the core search expertise,” Keybanc Capital analyst Justin Patterson wrote in a report.
OpenAI realized this lesson months in the past. Its “Ghiblify” function—which remodeled images into Studio Ghibli-style animations—drove greater than 1 million folks to join ChatGPT in a single hour. The function went so viral that OpenAI needed to implement price limits after customers generated thousands and thousands of whimsical portraits, even recreating controversial moments just like the 9/11 terrorist assaults within the Ghibli model.
xAI found the identical dynamic with Grok, although Elon Musk’s firm took a unique strategy. When Grok customers discovered they may generate anime-style “waifus” with out the content material restrictions different AIs imposed, downloads spiked 300% in Asian markets. Musk himself posted a number of generated pictures on X, alongside a “spicy mode” that permit customers generate NSFW movies utilizing Grok’s AI
Vibes have shifted absolutely.Gemini has overtaken ChatGPT on the AppStore rankings and now worldwide in Search Curiosity as effectively.
It is a no-brainer that picture modifying is the only real purpose for this. Nano banana has rescued Google within the AI race!
ChatGPT nonetheless dominates on uncooked metrics—700 million weekly energetic customers and over 1 billion every day queries within the final quarter, however Gemini’s sudden rise exhibits how shortly the panorama can shift when an AI function catches hearth on social media.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis tweeted: “Congrats to the @GeminiApp group… that is simply the beginning.”
Let’s hope there are extra memes to come back.
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