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Google’s Gemini chatbot surged to the top of Apple’s App Store on Tuesday, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT after months at No. 1, fueled by new video and image generation features that drew 13 million new users in just four days.
The app’s rise is being credited to Veo 3, a text-to-video tool added to the iOS version on Aug. 27, and Nano Banana, a new image-editing model released Sept. 3. Veo 3 allows users to generate short cinematic videos from text prompts, while Nano Banana lets them alter photos by typing instructions — such as turning pets into fantasy characters, testing different Halloween costumes, or rendering themselves as action figures.
The features quickly went viral, sending Gemini from 66th to 38th place overnight after Veo 3’s release, and then to No. 1 following Nano Banana’s debut. Since then, users have uploaded more than 500 million photos, according to Google.
Josh Woodward, head of the Gemini app, said last week that Nano Banana alone brought in 13 million new users in four days, bringing the app’s total to 23 million since launch. “We had to enact temporary usage limits over the weekend after experiencing excess demand,” Woodward added in a separate post.
As of July, Gemini had more than 450 million monthly active users, CEO Sundar Pichai told investors in Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings report.
The surge comes as Alphabet, Google’s parent company, continues its strong run on Wall Street. On Monday, it became the fourth member of the $3 trillion market cap club, joining Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple. Shares of Alphabet are up 33% this year, compared with a 16% gain for the Nasdaq. The company also gained a boost earlier this month from a favorable antitrust ruling allowing it to keep its Chrome browser.
After DeepSeek, Gemini is among the few AI chatbot apps to displace ChatGPT in global app store rankings. Analysts say the rapid growth shows how viral features are driving adoption of consumer AI tools.
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