Claude is the Number 2 Free App in Apple’s App Store Now

Gizmodo · Feb 28, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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In your lifetime, you have no doubt witnessed backlashes, cancellations, and the Streisand Effect. You have seen social media sites become bad, and alternatives crop up and become bad themselves. You have seen Chick Fil-A protested for too much homophobia, and later for not enough homophobia. You’ve seen members of the Dixie Chicks apologize to George W. Bush, and then un-apologize and rebrand, and then rebrand again. You’ve seen George H.W. Bush say “we need more families like The Waltons than The Simpsons” in a campaign speech only to lose, and see The Simpsons become so successful it eventually became as anodyne as The Waltons. And now they’re cancelling Claude. Is it going to make Claude more powerful? The earliest of early indicators suggest it may. You probably know by now the President has sought to use the tools available to him to annihilate the AI company Anthropic. And you may know that he has said in a Truth Social post, “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution.” Well, CNBC noticed Friday evening that the Claude app has risen to number 2 on Apple’s top U.S. free apps chart —almost immediately after the Trump administration gave the company a massive amount of free marketing by denouncing it, helped broker a deal between Anthropic’s main rival, OpenAI, and the Pentagon, and then started a major new war. I don’t know if the upswing in Claude usage is meant to be a form of protest, but if you are trying out Claude as a little protest against the war, may I suggest asking Claude the following question: “Hey Claude, is changing which AI chatbot I use going to help end a war?” I hope that helps.