Despite the fact that app downloads are not a perfect indicator of usage, they can give a glimpse of where the market is headed. When it comes to the alt-Twitter wars, Instagram’s Threads is currently leading the pack. In the last few months, Meta’s take on Twitter has seen a tripled number of daily downloads on iOS and more than double – and sometimes more than triple – the number of installs on Google Play.
While Threads saw a huge spike when it first launched publicly last summer, its downloads would rise and fall as Meta tested promoting it. But lately, Things have changed – since December, Threads has consistently seen over half a million installs per day across Android and iOS.
On February 25th for example, Threads saw 486,803 downloads on Android and 342,228 on iOS. During the same day, Twitter’s replacement app ‘X’ saw only 225,408 downloads on Android and 112,625 on iOS. So Threads downloads were nearly triple on iOS and over double on Android compared to ‘X’.
A few days before on February 22nd, the gap was even wider – Threads saw 382,999 iOS downloads vs just 113,649 for ‘X’, so over triple the amount. On Android it saw 660,882 vs 210,475 for ‘X’.
If these download trends continue over time, Threads could become the main alternative to Twitter and have the most monthly users. This would give Meta more control over sharing news and information online.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 130 million people use Threads each month already. Revenue is also up slightly since last month. Threads is doing especially well in Japan, where Twitter was popular before.
In comparison, while Twitter claims 500 million monthly users, it’s unclear how many are real people vs bots or spam accounts. The app ‘X’ has struggled with bots faking blue check verified accounts also.
Decentralized options like Mastodon are growing but still have around 1 million total users. Bluesky’s user numbers spiked when it launched publicly but declined since. It’s still early days for alternatives to truly compete.
For now, the data shows Threads Widening its Lead in the Battle for Social Media Dominance.
