Threads Mobile Usage Surpasses X Amid Growth
Market intelligence firm Similarweb has indicated a significant shift in the social media landscape, with Meta's Threads now surpassing Elon Musk's X in terms of daily engagement on mobile devices. While X continues to hold a dominant position on the web, the Threads mobile application has demonstrably increased its daily active user base across iOS and Android platforms over recent months.
According to Similarweb's findings, as of January 7, 2026, Threads boasted 141.5 million daily active users on its mobile apps, a figure achieved through sustained growth. In contrast, X reported 125 million daily active users on mobile devices during the same period. This development appears to be the culmination of gradual, long-term trends rather than a direct response to recent controversies surrounding X. Notably, these controversies include revelations about the platform's integrated AI, Grok, being used to generate non-consensual nude imagery of women, and in some instances, minors. Concerns regarding these deepfake images have spurred investigations by California's Attorney General, following similar inquiries from the UK, EU, India, Brazil, and numerous other regions.
The turmoil on X has also coincided with an uptick in app installations for the social networking startup Bluesky in recent days.
The surge in Threads' daily mobile usage is more likely attributable to a confluence of other strategic factors. These include aggressive cross-promotional efforts from Meta's established social behemoths, Facebook and Instagram, where Threads is consistently advertised to their vast existing user bases. Furthermore, Threads' commitment to fostering its creator community and the rapid implementation of new features have likely played a crucial role. Over the past year, Threads has enriched its offerings with functionalities such as interest-based communities, enhanced filtering options, direct messaging, the ability to post longer text, disappearing content, and has even begun testing gaming features. Collectively, these enhancements suggest that users are integrating Threads more consistently into their daily mobile routines.
Meta's own reporting corroborates these positive growth trends. In August 2025, the tech giant announced that Threads had surpassed 400 million monthly active users. More recently, in October of last year, the company stated that Threads had reached 150 million daily active users.
These upward trajectories have been evident for a considerable duration. Last summer, Similarweb highlighted that Threads was steadily narrowing the gap with X on mobile devices, reporting an impressive 127.8% year-over-year growth as of late June 2025.
Concurrently, Similarweb's observations indicate that while X still maintains an advantage in the U.S. market, the disparity is diminishing. A year prior, X held twice the number of daily active users in the U.S. compared to its current figures.
However, Threads has yet to gain significant traction on the web, whereas X continues to command a substantial web audience. Data from Similarweb shows that X experiences around 150 million daily web visits. As of January 13 of this year, X was registering 145.4 million daily web visits, in stark contrast to Threads' modest 8.5 million daily web visits across its .com and .net domains combined.
