In short
- NSFW and romantic AI companion apps have generated $427.3 million in shopper spending worldwide, in response to Appfigures Intelligence.
- The class contains 214 apps which were downloaded greater than 165 million instances since late 2022.
- Customers spent $162.8 million on romantic AI companions within the first half of 2026 alone.
Individuals are spending lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on AI girlfriends, and the pattern doesn’t present any indicators of slowing down.
In response to knowledge supplied to Decrypt by analytics agency Appfigures Intelligence, NSFW and romantic AI companion apps throughout Apple’s App Retailer and Google Play have generated 165.3 million downloads and $427.3 million in shopper spending worldwide for the reason that launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.
“The rankings are categorized by sort and mirror both downloads or gross shopper spending earlier than Apple/Google extract their platform charges, usually 30%,” Head of Insights and Media Relations at analytics agency AppFigures, Randy Nelson, informed Decrypt.
In response to Nelson, Appfigures recognized 214 NSFW and romantic AI companion apps, which generated $162.8 million in shopper spending throughout the first half of 2026.
Amongst NSFW and romantic AI companion apps, Zeta ranked first by gross income within the first half of 2026, producing $33 million, in response to Appfigures. Tipsy Chat: Dwell Your Story, adopted with $15.2 million, ChatBox: AI Chat Bot Assistant with $13 million, Crushie AI: Chat & Companion with $8.8 million, and Emochi: Chat With Character with $7.5 million.
Emochi was probably the most downloaded romantic AI companion app throughout the identical interval, reaching 7.9 million installs. Amora: A Trace of Your Soulmate adopted with 3.6 million downloads, Zeta with 3 million, BIMOBIMO with 2.8 million, and MiraiMind with 2.6 million.
Whereas normal or “PG” AI companions had almost twice as many downloads, romantic apps generated virtually the identical quantity of income. Within the first half of 2026, PG/normal apps introduced in $164.8 million.
The information comes as extra individuals are turning to AI chatbots for companionship, romance, and relationships—together with a rising “digisexual” subculture centered on emotional connections with AI companions.
In Could 2026, researchers at Brigham Younger College, the Institute for Household Research, and the Wheatley Institute discovered that 15% of partnered U.S. adults ages 18 to 30 often used AI romantic companions, with 69% of normal customers saying they hid the complete extent of their use from their companion.
That very same month, AI companion platform Joi AI first introduced it might pay 10 individuals $2,000 a month to check an AI-guided masturbation function and doc its results on stress, sleep, temper, and confidence. The corporate stated the marketing campaign was supposed to gather product suggestions whereas exploring AI’s position in digital intimacy.
By July 2026, Joi AI stated the marketing campaign drew greater than 150,000 candidates worldwide, forcing the corporate to create a proper choice course of.
Appfigures stated it categorized the apps utilizing retailer metadata, descriptions, age scores, and phrases linked to romance and grownup content material. Nevertheless, the figures solely cowl the seen cellular market however exclude web-only platforms equivalent to Joi AI, Sweet AI, and SpicyChat AI.
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