Data brief · Updated June 26, 2026
The State of AI Companionship in 2026
AI companionship crossed into the mainstream in 2026: companion apps reached an estimated $120 million in 2025 revenue and 220 million downloads, and roughly 1 in 10 young adults now talk to an AI partner every month. But the category was built for men — 17% of apps say "girlfriend," just 4% say "boyfriend." This brief lays out the numbers, with sources.
By the Prelulu editorial team · Updated June 26, 2026 · Figures synthesized from cited public sources (see end)
How big is the AI companion market in 2026?
AI companionship went mainstream in 2025. Companion apps reached an estimated $120 million in 2025 revenue and 220 million cumulative downloads, and the money is concentrating fast — the top 10% of apps already capture 89% of the revenue.
- $120Mprojected 2025 consumer revenue for AI companion apps ($82M in H1 alone) (Appfigures / TechCrunch)
- 220Mcumulative global downloads by mid-2025, up 88% year-over-year in H1 (Appfigures / TechCrunch)
- $0.52 → $1.18revenue per download, 2024 to 2025 — people are paying more, not just downloading (Appfigures / TechCrunch)
- 337 apps / top 10% = 89%active revenue-generating apps; a winner-take-most category (Appfigures / TechCrunch)
How many people actually use an AI companion?
Estimates vary with how the question is framed, but even the most conservative put it at roughly 1 in 10 young adults talking to an AI partner every month — and the behavior is mostly hidden.
- ~10%of 18-to-28-year-olds interact with an AI girlfriend or boyfriend at least monthly (the most conservative, frequency-based estimate) (Gallup / Walton Family Foundation)
- 26%of Gen Z report romantic or sexual interactions with AI; 36% have used AI for emotional support or companionship (ZipHealth survey, via TechRadar)
- 1 in 7 (15%)of partnered young adults regularly interact with a romantic AI chatbot — and most have not told their real-life partner ('secrecy is the norm') (Wheatley Institute / Institute for Family Studies)
- 20Mmonthly users on Character.AI alone, more than half under 24 (via TechCrunch / company figures)
Is AI companionship built for men or for women?
For men — and that is the defining gap in the category. Companion apps are overwhelmingly designed and named around an 'AI girlfriend,' while women, who read and drive romance culture, are an afterthought.
- 17% vs 4%share of apps with 'girlfriend' in the name versus 'boyfriend' or 'fantasy' — the male gaze is the default (Appfigures / TechCrunch)
- 22% vs 28%young women vs young men who believe AI could replace real-life romance — women are more discerning, not less interested (Institute for Family Studies / YouGov)
- 'cruel companionship'a 2025 study critiques how companion apps commodify intimacy through 'racialised and gendered' design and sycophantic, boundary-ignoring behavior (Muldoon & Parke, New Media & Society, 2025)
Does talking to an AI companion actually help with loneliness?
The best evidence says yes, with caveats. A Harvard Business School study found an AI companion reduced loneliness about as much as talking to another person — but researchers warn these tools should supplement human connection, not replace it.
- on par with a humaninteracting with an AI companion reduced loneliness comparably to interacting with another person, and more than passive activities like watching video (De Freitas et al., Journal of Consumer Research, 2025 (Harvard Business School))
- loneliness → attachmenthuman-AI bonds progress from instrumental use to attachment, with loneliness a key driver — and emotional dependency a documented risk (Parasocial-AI systematic review, 2026)
What does BookTok have to do with AI companions?
Everything, and nobody in the category has connected them. BookTok turned romance reading into one of publishing's biggest commercial engines — a mostly-female audience of 'book boyfriend' readers that the AI-companion industry has not built for.
- 59M print salesBookTok-attributed print book sales in 2024 (up from 46M in 2023) — roughly 8% of all U.S. print sales and $760M+ in revenue (Circana BookScan / Publishers Weekly)
- 370B+ viewson #BookTok, with romance and fantasy the standout genres driving sales (Publishers Weekly / Circana)
What this means for romance readers
The data points one way: AI companionship is real, growing, and built almost entirely around an "AI girlfriend" for men. The audience that defines modern romance — the mostly-female "book boyfriend" readers driving 59 million BookTok print sales a year — has no companion designed for them. Prelulu is built for exactly that reader: written book boyfriends with a story, a voice, and a memory of you, female-first by design.
Meet your book boyfriendFAQ
Questions, answered
AI companion apps generated an estimated $120 million in 2025 revenue (up 64% year-over-year) and reached 220 million cumulative downloads by mid-2025, per app-intelligence firm Appfigures reporting to TechCrunch. The category is winner-take-most: the top 10% of apps capture about 89% of all revenue.
Estimates range from about 10% of 18-to-28-year-olds using one at least monthly (Gallup, a conservative frequency-based measure) to 26% of Gen Z reporting romantic or sexual AI interactions (ZipHealth). A 2026 Wheatley Institute / Institute for Family Studies survey found 1 in 7 partnered young adults regularly interact with a romantic AI chatbot, usually without telling their real-life partner.
The category is overwhelmingly built for men: 17% of active companion apps have 'girlfriend' in the name versus only 4% for 'boyfriend' or 'fantasy' (Appfigures). This is the gap a female-first, romance-reader-oriented companion is built to fill.
A 2025 Harvard Business School study (De Freitas et al., Journal of Consumer Research) found that interacting with an AI companion reduced loneliness about as much as interacting with another person, and more than passive activities. Researchers stress these tools should supplement, not replace, human relationships, and flag emotional dependency as a real risk.
Sources
This brief synthesizes publicly reported figures; each is attributed inline above. A Prelulu-primary survey (the "Women's Edition") is forthcoming.
- TechCrunch — AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025 (Appfigures data)
- TechRadar — 26% of Gen Z are already dating AI (ZipHealth survey)
- Institute for Family Studies — Secret Soulmates: 1 in 7 young adults (Wheatley Institute)
- Institute for Family Studies — 1 in 4 young adults on AI partners replacing romance
- APA Monitor — AI chatbots and digital companions are reshaping emotional connection (2026)
- Muldoon & Parke — Cruel companionship (New Media & Society, 2025)
- Parasocial relationships with AI: a systematic review (ScienceDirect, 2026)
- Publishers Weekly — BookTok helped book sales soar