After Tucker Carlson revealed on X that he would interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, Twitter downloads skyrocketed, pushing X to the top of the U.S. App Store overnight. Reuters, the AP, and The New York Times verified Carlson’s interview on Wednesday, while The Wall Street Journal reported that it would appear on Thursday, citing anonymous sources.
According to Appfigures, the Carlson-Putin interview undoubtedly increased fresh installations for the X app, which started ascending the App Store rankings about 7 PM EST and reached the No. 1 app by midnight. It defeated Instagram Threads, which was formerly the top app and is now No. 2.
Early Appfigures estimates show X got 117,000 downloads on Tuesday, up from 93,000 the day before. The company thinks X might get more installations today since it gained momentum later in the evening.
Carlson said on the Elon Musk-owned platform that he will show Putin’s first Western media interview since Russia invaded Ukraine in his video. A Kremlin spokesman told Reuters that Putin consented to the interview because Carlson’s approach would vary from Western media’s “one-sided” Ukraine coverage. Putin thinks he will reach a wider, sympathetic audience as well as a sympathetic ear.
On Tuesday afternoon, X tweeted a video of Carlson from a downtown Moscow high-rise. Explaining why he would interview Putin, he said, “Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now.” The former Fox News host also argued that Americans should know these things since they pay part of the Russia-Ukraine war’s expenses. Christiane Amanpour, a CNN and PBS journalist, quickly refuted his claim that he would approach Putin alone for the interview:
Tucker, do you believe the media haven’t been interviewing Putin daily since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine? It’s absurd—we’ll keep requesting an interview for years.
Carlson has been criticized for seeming to empathize with Russia by asking Fox News viewers to inquire what the Ukraine crisis was truly about and why they dislike Putin.
A few creators have opened up shop on Musk’s renamed X, including the TV presenter. Musk emphasized in May, soon after Carlson’s Fox ouster, that X had no arrangement with the TV personality. Musk said Carlson would still be subject to X’s content creator guidelines, including those that give artists a part of ad income.
Musk’s rightward political change and proclivity to share controversial opinions on the platform have placed X in hot water and imperiled its profitability. X lost advertisers late last year due to Musk’s anti-Semitic rants.
Despite Musk’s beliefs, not every X creator material agrees. A January X video by top YouTuber MrBeast earned him almost $250,000. X will also publish a program by former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was fired last year. Political activists Tulsi Gabbard and Paris Hilton, who the NYT just announced will return to X, are also creators. According to the story, X CEO Linda Yaccarino encouraged Hilton to return after Musk’s antisemitic statements and brand safety worries turned her off.
The date of X’s App Store peak is remarkable for more than Tucker Carlson.
X rival Bluesky opened its doors to the public yesterday after being invite-only. Bluesky will debut Federation this year as a decentralized Twitter/X alternative like Mastodon. It employs the AT Protocol, whereas Mastodon and Instagram Threads, another X competitor, use ActivityPub.
Bluesky attracted 800,000 users yesterday, although it is not among the top 100 free applications on the U.S. App Store.
