Apple reveals the most well-liked free iPhone apps of 2025 — and there’s a shock runner-up to ChatGPT

Apple has already topped the 2025 App Retailer Winners – a comparatively brief checklist of 17 apps and video games with spotlights throughout every of its platforms (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Imaginative and prescient Professional included). However in the present day, the Cupertino-based tech big can also be sharing a little bit of the individuals’s vote within the realm of apps.

We have now the highest 10 lists – together with prolonged rankings throughout the App Retailer – for essentially the most downloaded apps and video games on iPhone and iPad, cut up by free and paid. There’s even an inventory of essentially the most downloaded Apple Arcade titles. And whereas all of us may have guessed that OpenAI’s ChatGPT could be excessive up, it ranks because the number-one free app for the iPhone. Nonetheless, there are just a few surprises as you look down the lists.

Coming in at quantity two on essentially the most downloaded free iPhone apps is Threads – sure, the still-new platform from Meta that Mark Zuckerberg hopes will steal thunder from X (previously Twitter and Bluesky). Which means a big variety of individuals have downloaded it, whether or not they found it on their very own or by way of suggestions from the Instagram app.

Instagram itself isn’t far down the checklist at quantity six, and TikTok – which stays in one thing of an ungainly spot right here in the US – is available in at quantity 4. You possibly can see the complete checklist under, however it’s value noting that Google additionally had a powerful presence within the high ten, with Gemini, YouTube, the primary Google app, and Google Maps all making the minimize.

On the iPad facet, whereas Instagram lastly arrived on the platform, it didn’t break into the highest 10 free iPadOS apps. As anticipated, it’s a streaming-heavy checklist, with Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video all securing main slots. YouTube takes the highest spot, and Google Chrome isn’t far down the checklist. The ever-popular GoodNotes – a note-taking app with a set of AI performance, together with handwriting cleanup and in depth folder group – additionally seems.

You possibly can preserve scrolling to see the complete high 10 lists for the highest free and paid iPhone and iPad apps, the highest video games for every, and the general checklist of most downloaded Apple Arcade titles. It’s at all times enjoyable, and infrequently insightful, to browse these year-end lists to see what individuals use most – or, in some circumstances, obtain and solely open as soon as.