According to an article that appeared today at TechCrunch, downloads of AI companion apps were up 88% in the first half-of-this year compared to the same period last year, reaching 60 million. Revenue generated by the apps is also up by 64%. The app intelligence firm ‘appfigures’ which provided the data to TechCrunch, also discovered searches for AI girlfriend apps were over 4% more common than for an AI boyfriend.
Of the active apps on the market today, 17% have an app name that includes the word “girlfriend,” compared with 4% that say “boyfriend” or “fantasy.” Terms like anime, soulmate, and lover, among others, are less frequently mentioned.
How Big is The AI Girlfriend Industry
Back in April 2024, a tech executive predicted that AI girlfriends would soon become a billion-dollar industry. In a post on X.com, Greg Isenberg noted that the popular dating site Match.com is valued at $9 billion. Mentioning that he knew somebody who spent $10K a month on AI girlfriends, he confidently predicted the imminent birth of a new billion doller industry. We may not be there yet, but the statistic from appfigures would suggest that it’s only a matter of time. The AI companion market on mobile alone has already generated $82 million this year and is expected to pull in over $120 million by the year’s end. Many hugely popular NSFW AI girlfriend sites do not have mobile apps. This includes the likes of GirlfriendGPT. Even if we say the total AI companion market this year will ‘only’ be $150 millon, at a growth of 66% per year, it would only take four years to reach $1 billion.
However, there might be a few bumps on the road. Popluar roleplay site Character.ai is facing multiple lawsuits, including one from the parents of a teenage boy who was allegedly encouraged by his AI companion on the site to commit suicide. In response, California lawmakers are attempting to push through the first bill to regulate the AI companion industry. One of the proposed measures is to force AI companion chatbots to repeatedly remind their human partners that they are only machines.
