It’s still got a way to go, but Threads is gradually closing the gap on X in terms of overall usage, with Meta’s answer to Twitter now exceeding 350 million monthly active users.
Meta made the announcement within its latest earnings update, where it also shared that Threads has seen a 35% increase in time spent, which it says is a result of improvements that it’s continuing to make to its recommendation systems.
A Meta spokesman shared this statement:
“With more people joining the vibrant conversations and communities on Threads, it’s on track to be Meta’s next major social app, and the best alternative to X and other text-based sharing platforms.”
So while Threads is seeking to establish its own identity, beating out X is still clearly among its key aims.
And as noted, while it’s not there yet, it is inching closer:
As you can see in this chart, X recently claimed to have reached 600 million monthly active users, which still sees it at almost double Threads’ total usage.
But I also don’t entirely trust X’s data on this.
For example, X owner Elon Musk claimed that X had 600 million users back in May 2024, but X’s official reporting only pegged it at 550 million at that time.
And even that seems speculative.
Part of the reason why previous Twitter management was hesitant to crack down on bot profiles in the app was because doing so would tank its usage stats. Because one way or another, Twitter had been counting at least some bot profiles in its active user figures.
Former CEO Jack Dorsey alluded to this back in 2022, when Elon Musk first registered interest in buying the app, noting, in response to a question about combating bots, that Twitter needed to be taken private to provide “cover” for the company to undertake a significant overhaul.
In other words, Twitter couldn’t just cull the millions of bot profiles in the app, because its monthly user stats would look terrible, hurting the stock price.
Musk himself determined that around 33% of Twitter’s active users were actually bots, as part of his own efforts to get out of his $44 billion bid for the app. He eventually settled on it being around 20%, though he remained confident that the amount was “much higher.”
Yet, shortly after buying the app, Musk announced several bot purges, which he claims eradicated millions of bot accounts.
But Twitter’s active user count remained unchanged, and in fact, increased based on its reporting after that time.
So somehow, Musk was getting rid of millions of accounts that he claimed were being counted as active users, yet Twitter/X’s user figures were improving?
The only possibility then was that X was somehow adding so many new users that they were exceeding the outgoing bots. But when you also consider that X has lost 17 million users in Europe since Musk’s takeover, which is the only region where it reports actual active user stats, the trends and data notes don’t seem to add up.
Which suggests that X’s 600 million MAU count is likely not accurate, which would mean that Threads is already much closer to X than it seems.
We don’t know, because X isn’t actually obliged to provide official, verified usage data outside of EU. But I would hazard a guess that the gap is actually significantly smaller than even what the above graphic suggests.
Threads continues to see strong download momentum, and as Meta notes, it’s also growing in terms of time spent.
It’s also now making a bigger push on sports content, which remains the most significant engagement driver on X, via an exclusive content partnership with the UFC.
Combine that with a more open approach to real-time news, due to Meta’s reversal in approach to political content, and it does seem like Threads is positioned to make a more significant push to beat out X as the real-time platform of choice.
It’s still got some way to go, but that gap may not be as big as it seems, and it might not take too long for Threads to gain conquering momentum.
