Being early to the party matters.
ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Within two months, it had 100 million users. The fastest growing consumer app in internet history.
Three years later, the 2025 Stack Overflow survey shows something revealing.
81.7% of developers use ChatGPT. The next closest competitor? GitHub Copilot at 67.9%. Then a steep drop. Google Gemini at 47.4%. Claude Code at 40.8%.
The gap isn’t just about features.
Sure, ChatGPT iterates fast. GPT-4 arrived in March 2023. Plugins followed. Mobile apps. API access. They moved while others were still planning.
But here’s what really happened.
ChatGPT became the verb. Like Google. Like Xerox. When someone says “I’ll ChatGPT that,” they don’t mean the product. They mean the action. That’s brand gravity you cannot buy.
The survey shows 20+ AI coding tools fighting for attention. Most hover between 1% and 10% adoption. They’re technically capable. Some are even better at specific tasks. But they’re late.
First mover advantage isn’t a guarantee. It’s an opportunity.
You still need to execute. You still need to deliver value. You still need to keep moving.
But if you’re building something new, timing isn’t just important.
It might be half the game.
The other half? Building something people actually want to use. ChatGPT did both.
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