Meta's new Threads, a rival for X, is now Apple's most downloaded app

• Threads, built on the back of Instagram and launched in July, may have staying power.
• The new Meta platform recently became available in the EU, seeing a surge in downloads.

Threads this week became the most popular app in Apple's US app store, showing the X rival is gaining traction in the wake of Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter.

The Threads app, a text-based social media platform from Meta that functions similarly to X, launched six months ago. After an immediate surge in popularity, which saw Threads break the record for an app to hit 150 million downloads, usage fell as the app lacked features and was relatively bare-bones. Over the ensuing weeks, the small team of 15 engineers that built the app on the back of Instagram's tech tweaked and added to the platform, and users came back and seemed to stay. Then Threads launched a web version and on December 14, it opened up to the European Union.

That move seems to have pushed the platform this week to the top spot on Apple's App Store. Although Threads was ranked in the top five in recent weeks, it moved to second place after opening to the EU, just behind Temu, a marketplace for discounted goods. On Wednesday it moved to first place and has remained there since. In the Google Play Store, Threads is the fifth most downloaded free app.

A year ago, Meta did not have an app in Apple's top ten downloads, according to an archive of the company's rankings. Today, Instagram is also in the top 10, and it and Facebook, Meta's oldest platform, are growing faster than TikTok.

Over the last three months, users of Threads have steadily increased. Daily active users have grown 17% to just under 35 million people, and monthly active users are up 27% to just under 140 million people, according to Apptopia data. Total downloads since launch are 445 million, Apptopia shows.

Even before Threads became available to countries in the EU, the platform had shown some staying power. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said toward the end of October the platform had just under 100 million monthly active users, and he saw it getting to "a 1 billion-person conversation app that's a bit more positive". In mid-December, Apple, for the first time, released an end-of-year report on its top apps and games for 2023. Despite only launching in July, Threads was Apple's fourth most-downloaded app for the entire year.

This contrasts with X, which Elon Musk purchased as Twitter a year ago and has dramatically morphed in his image.

Daily active users of X have fallen about 5% over the last three months, and monthly active users are down 1%, according to Apptopia data. Downloads remain at the lowest level in over a decade since Musk renamed the platform X, going against the value of the Twitter brand and the wishes of CEO Linda Yaccarino.

As Musk has seemingly delved deeper into extreme conservative political views, engaging and agreeing with racist and antisemitic tweets on X, essentially all major advertisers have fled, putting X's existence at risk.

Musk has responded with public outbursts and anger. When asked about the advertiser exodus three weeks ago at the New York Times's DealBook conference, the billionaire suggested he was being blackmailed and told advertisers to "go fuck yourself." He also admitted that the loss of advertisers "is going to kill the company."

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