Meta’s Threads surpasses X in global daily mobile usage

Photo: Shutterstock, photo editor: Serikzhan Kovlanbayev

Meta’s social network Threads has surpassed Elon Musk’s X in daily active users on mobile devices worldwide, TechCrunch reported, citing data from market intelligence firm Similarweb.

According to the analytics firm, in early January, Threads recorded about 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android, compared with 125 million for X. The shift follows several months of steady growth for Threads’ mobile app, while X continues to maintain a stronger presence on the web.

Analysts attribute Threads’ growth to Meta’s long-term product and distribution strategies. Meta has promoted Threads directly to existing Facebook and Instagram users and enhanced the platform with features like topic-based communities, improved content filters, direct messages, longer posts, disappearing content and experimental in-app games.

In the U.S., however, X still has more mobile users, although Threads’ popularity is growing rapidly. In many other countries, Meta’s new social network is already dominant. In Kazakhstan, for example, users joke that the platform seems tailor-made for them, noting that even the Home button icon resembles a yurt, the traditional circular tent used by nomadic cultures in Central Asia.

At the same time, X has been facing criticism over the misuse of its Grok AI tool to generate non-consensual explicit images. Several countries have launched investigations into the matter, prompting the company to restrict some image generation and editing features to paying users.