Threads Usage Drops By Half From Initial Surge

While a strong start makes Threads a contender among possible Twitter replacements, daily active users dropped from 49 million to 23.6 million in a week

In the race to replace Twitter, Threads is off to a strong start but still has a long way to go toward winning the enduring loyalty of those who partake in a social network dominated by text posts and linked articles. Despite attracting far broader attention than Twitter alternatives like the open source Mastodon or the still beta Bluesky, the Threads spin-off from Meta’s Instagram business unit does not yet have customers coming back regularly.

Many of the statistics quoted below are based on usage on Android, which is somewhat easier to track than usage on iOS – although numbers for Apple’s mobile app platform will be released in the coming weeks.

Key takeaways

• On its best day, July 7, Threads had more than 49 million daily active users on Android, worldwide, according to Similarweb estimates. That’s about 45% of the usage of Twitter, which had more than 109 million active Android users that day.
• By Friday, July 14, Threads was down to 23.6 million active users, or about 22% of Twitter’s audience.
• Usage in the US, which saw the most activity, peaked at about 21 minutes of engagement with the app on July 7. By July 14, that was down to a little over 6 minutes.
• In the first two full days that Threads was generally available, Thursday and Friday, web traffic to twitter.com was down 5% compared with the same days of the previous week. Although traffic bounced back, for the most recent 7 days of data it’s still down 11% year-over-year.
• On the days of peak interest in Threads, Twitter’s Daily active users on Android, worldwide, were virtually unchanged, but time spent was down 4.3% – perhaps because some users were off trying Threads. Even with that drop, however, the average total time spent on Twitter was about 25 minutes.

To a large extent, Threads solves the “empty party problem” that makes it tough to start a new online community by allowing Instagram users to instantly create a Threads account, bringing their existing contacts with them.  Our daily usage numbers make Meta’s claim of having achieved more than 100 million total account signups in a matter of days seem reasonable. However, Threads is missing many basic features and still needs to offer a compelling reason to switch from Twitter or start a new social media habit with Threads.

Threads briefly captured a big chunk of Twitter’s market

Here’s a snapshot of how the two compared during the initial rush of excitement and the days after.

Total daily minutes of use has fallen

Threads drew the most usage within the US, partly because it’s not available in another key market, the EU. US users were enthusiastic enough about diving into Threads and seeing who else was there that they averaged 21 minutes of usage of the app on July 7. However, by July 14, that was down to a little over 6 minutes.

If Threads succeeds vs Twitter, the Instagram edge will be a big reason

There are some signs that Threads threads to eat directly into Twitter’s market share. In the first two full days that Threads was generally available, Thursday and Friday, web traffic to twitter.com was down 5% compared with the same days of the previous week and Twitter Android app usage, by time spent, was down 4.3%.

In a bad sign for app user loyalty, Twitter user retention has been on the decline. On Android, the percentage of new users who are continuing to regularly use the Twitter app after 30 days has dropped from 19% in May 2022 to 16% in May 2023. In contrast, the loyalty of new Instagram users has held steady at about 40%.

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Methodology

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