OpenAI’s user base has grown to 800 million people, largely thanks to the popularity of AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style images. These magical pictures, which look like they’re from famous Japanese animated films, have spread quickly across social media. A Seattle engineer first created this trend that caught the public’s imagination. The combination of nostalgic art style and cutting-edge technology shows how AI tools are becoming part of everyday culture. What other creative trends might emerge next?
In a digital wildfire that shows no signs of slowing, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has shattered growth records across the tech industry. From its humble beginning of 1 million users within five days of launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has grown at an unprecedented pace. By January 2023, it reached 100 million monthly active users, claiming the title of fastest-growing application in history at that time.
ChatGPT’s explosive growth has rewritten the tech playbook, reaching 100M users faster than any app in history.
The platform’s growth has continued to accelerate, with weekly active users jumping from 100 million in November 2023 to 400 million by February 2025. This explosive growth has made ChatGPT’s website the 8th most visited globally, recording 5.19 billion monthly visits.
A major catalyst for recent user engagement has been the introduction of Studio Ghibli-style AI-generated images. These whimsical creations sparked a viral trend that stretched OpenAI’s infrastructure to its limits following the ChatGPT-4o update. Posts featuring these artistic images gained tens of millions of views across social media platforms, with one Seattle software engineer’s creations becoming an internet sensation. OpenAI eventually introduced rate limits to manage overwhelming server demand caused by users attempting to create similar Ghibli-style images. The viral success demonstrates the growing importance of multimodal AI that integrates text and visual inputs for more contextual understanding and creative outputs.
The economic impact of this growth is substantial. OpenAI now generates $300 million in monthly revenue, supported by approximately 10 million paying subscribers to its ChatGPT Plus tier. The company dominates the AI tools market with a 62.5% share and boasts a valuation of $157 billion. The company expects to reach annual sales forecasts of $11.6 billion in 2025.
ChatGPT’s user base spans the globe, though 16% of users are based in the United States. Curiously, 64.03% of users are reported to be from low-income demographics, suggesting the technology’s broad accessibility. About 62% of ChatGPT’s social media traffic comes from YouTube, highlighting the platform’s integration with popular content channels.
As OpenAI targets 1 billion users by the end of 2025, the company’s blend of cutting-edge technology and cultural relevance continues to fuel its rapid expansion. The Ghibli-style image phenomenon demonstrates how AI creativity merged with pop culture can capture global imagination and drive unprecedented user growth.
