Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Suddenly Beating AI Apps in App Store Rankings. The Reason Is Surprisingly Simple

The sports retailer has won over customers with its in-app freebies.

BY ALI DONALDSON, STAFF REPORTER @ALICDONALDSON

Photos: Courtesy Dick’s; Getty Images

The AI wars have a brick-and-mortar competitor—at least in the App Store. 

After Anthropic refused to allow the federal government to use its AI products without any restrictions, including the powering of massive surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, its large language model, Claude, rocketed to the top of the list of the most popular free downloads in the Apple App Store over the weekend. Robert Bye, a product manager at Anthropic, posted a screenshot of the achievement on X and thanked users for their support, but social media users took away a very different message from his post. 

The list of top downloads was dominated by LLMs, but at number three, below Claude and Open AI and above Google’s Gemini, users spotted one brand name that was not like the others: Dick’s Sporting Goods. 

This is not a new launch. The chain, which operates more than 800 stores across the country, first rolled out its mobile app, which offers free shipping, free one-hour pickup in stores, in-app exclusive offers, price matching, and the ability to make and share wishlists, back in 2012, but the retailer has been pushing consumers towards the platform over the past year. 

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As part of a broader effort to boost e-commerce sales, Dick’s has been “really leaning into our app experience,” said CEO Lauren Hobart on the company’s third quarter earnings call in November. 

That strategy seems to be landing with consumers. On Apple’s App Store, the Dick’s app has more than 221,000 ratings with an average of 4.8 stars. Hobart specifically cited the advantage of using the app’s launch reservation system, which lets consumers sign up for new product drops, such as those for new and limited-edition sneakers, but users have been highlighting a different use case: earning free stuff for walking or working out.

The Dick’s app has a function called move, which lets customers sync their fitness trackers, such as Apple Health, Garmin, FitBit, or Map My Fitness, to earn points. For each day that the user reaches 10,000 steps, three miles, or completes half an hour of physical activity, they earn three points, which can be redeemed for discounts.

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