The Top Chatbots, Compared from 5 Angles — The AI Big Bang Study 2025
In our first release of The AI Big Bang Study 2025, we ranked the top 10 AI chatbots by a weighted score built on 8 key metrics. That gave us the final leaderboard – the big picture.
But rankings shift dramatically depending on which lens you use.
This infographic compares the same chatbots from 5 different angles—the final weighted rank plus 4 of the metrics that shaped it:
- Web visits
- Media citations
- App store reviews
- Usage duration
How the Story Changes by Metric
The story gets a lot more interesting when you look at the chatbots side by side across these different measures.
- ChatGPT remains the giant. With 46.6B visits and 2.4M media citations, it dominates on scale. It also leads in app reviews (26.2M), proving its broad adoption. Still, it doesn’t win on everything—Claude and Grok edge it out in usage duration.
- Grok sits at #2 in the final weighted score, but at first glance that’s puzzling. In these four charts, it often trails behind Gemini and others. The reason? Grok’s overall rank is lifted by its performance in other metrics not shown here—like YoY growth, MoM growth, market share by usage, and app ratings.
- Gemini is the steady all-rounder. With 1.7B visits, 1.8M media citations, and 9.4M app reviews, it ranks near the top across multiple charts. But one weakness stands out—it’s second lowest in usage duration, showing that reach doesn’t always equal engagement.
- Claude is the engagement leader. Users spend nearly 17 minutes per session on average, making it the stickiest chatbot in the pack. Its traffic may be smaller, but this metric suggests strong loyalty.
- DeepSeek is the classic “hype curve” story. It’s #2 in total annual visits (2.7B) and #3 in citations (1.4M), but both trends have been declining steadily since February 2025 after a huge peak. Early app adoption drove it to become the most downloaded chatbot at launch, but its current app store reviews stand far behind ChatGPT or Gemini—hinting at fading momentum.
- Perplexity is carving out balance. It doesn’t lead in any single metric, but holds mid-tier strength across traffic, citations, and engagement, suggesting it’s gaining ground without relying on hype.
- Copilot, Poe, Mistral, and Meta AI close out the list with smaller user bases and niche roles, far from the scale of the leaders.
Takeaways
There isn’t one single way to define “best” in AI chatbots. Some win on traffic, some on engagement, some on buzz.
- Scale vs. stickiness: ChatGPT dominates reach, while Claude proves deep engagement matters.
- Media coverage matters: Spikes in citations often align with spikes in traffic.
- Consistency pays off: Gemini may not be #1 in any single metric, but its balance across all measures signals resilience.
The market is evolving fast—and this kind of multi-angle breakdown shows us who’s leading by size, who’s winning on loyalty, and who might emerge stronger over time.
👉 See the Data Source below (The AI Big Bang Study 2025) for more charts, context, and the full rankings.