App downloads don’t exactly predict use, but they may indicate market direction. Instagram Threads is winning the alt-Twitter fights. Meta’s take on Twitter currently triples X’s (previously Twitter’s) daily iOS downloads worldwide and doubles or triples its Google Play installations.
This wasn’t always the case. After its summer 2023 public launch, Threads saw a massive spike in new installs, but downloads would often spike and drop as parent company Meta tried different strategies to drive traffic to its new app, such as showcasing popular Threads on Facebook and Instagram. Threads’ downloads dropped after these early attempts, reverting to even with X installations, especially on iOS, according to Appfigures.
Late last year, everything changed.
Threads had over half a million Google Play and iOS installations per day by late December. The latter fell in January, but Threads currently has more daily downloads than X on both platforms and looks to be extending the margin.
Appfigures data reveals that Threads had 486,803 Google Play installations and 342,228 iOS installs on February 25, 2024, whereas X had 225,408 and 112,625, respectively. That’s roughly triple Threads’ iOS downloads and more than double its Google Play downloads.
The disparity was larger on February 22, only days before. Threads had 382,999 daily iOS installations, compared to 113,649 for X. Threads had 660,882 Google Play downloads, whereas X had 210,475—more than triple.
Threads now routinely exceed X’s daily install rates, which fluctuate. This change may ultimately affect monthly active users. Although Twitter has led this sector for years, Threads would become the most popular microblogging network if that were true. Additionally, it would give Meta more editorial control over the news and information-sharing ecosystem that journalists, academics, researchers, and other people use. Meta has maintained it won’t boost news on threads or advocate political material.
As of the fourth quarter, Threads has 130 million MAUs, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Those numbers have likely risen in recent weeks. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says Threads is working “remarkably well” in Japan, where Twitter was popular.
X reported 500 million monthly active users last autumn, but it’s unknown how many are spam or artificial accounts. As Eltrys reported last month, X appears to have a verified bot problem, where several blue-checked, paid accounts accidentally revealed their source by replying to X posts with “I’m sorry, I cannot provide the requested feedback as it goes against OpenAI’s content policy”—an AI boilerplate response. Searching X for the same question shows the issue is continuous.
Though Threads is not immune, more users are sharing this sentence naturally on Meta as a joke with their followers.
X’s rebranding from Twitter may be affecting fresh installations. Appfigures notes that December and January downloads are up somewhat, but they’re still far lower than before the rebranding. Threads’ January sales rose marginally, but the company expects February revenue to fall.
Decentralized X alternatives like Mastodon’s official mobile app and the recently available Bluesky hardly registered on the download chart during this competition, appearing as flat lines. Though Mastodon has a large third-party app ecosystem, its first-party statistics show that its network has roughly 1 million monthly active users.
Bluesky launched earlier this month to a modest crowd, but its impetus has already waned. Its highest day (February 7, the day following its debut) garnered 79,685 iOS installations and 55,711 Google Play installs, nothing near Threads or X. This social network, which just opened federation so anybody may create a Bluesky server, is still young. As a decentralized Twitter/X alternative, it may acquire popularity.
Threads surpasses X with treble iOS daily downloads.
