Meta’s Threads is on pace to hit a milestone that at one point seemed improbable: surpassing X in daily active users. New data from Similarweb, which compiled the unique users of Threads on iOS and Android, shows its mobile reach has now overtaken X’s at nearly 130 million daily actives, with the cementing of what was a gentle slope of growth implying that finally time may be near to hand off the top spot.
The catch is where it occurs. According to Similarweb’s view, X actually maintains a larger footprint on the web still, highlighting a divide of behavior: Threads is growing in the app economy and X has deep roots in desktop browsing and embedded content across news sites.
Mobile Momentum And The Growth Curve For Threads
On mobile, Threads’ curve is unequivocally upward. Panel-based data from Similarweb indicates the app has been gaining daily active users slowly on both big platforms, closing the gap with X. That’s meaningful in a category dominated by the phone as the primary portal for quick posts, replies and scroll sessions between other tasks throughout each day.
Some of that lift is structural. Threads gets to piggyback on Meta’s distribution muscle: a low-friction signup flow, an already built social graph from Instagram, and regular cross-promotion. Those benefits reduce the cold-start problem that plagues most new social apps, and can turn casual curiosity to repeat visits into addicted devotion.
Why Threads Is Catching Up In Real-Time Social
Product maturity has helped this along. Since its launch, Threads has introduced the essentials that people come to expect in an app for real-time conversation—more powerful search, a more robust web client and features that have made posting and discovering content feel smoother over time. Meta has also created an API that will allow publishers, brands and creators to plug the service into scheduling software and newsroom workflows.
There’s also the ecosystem effect. Threads posts are hyper-clickable because of Instagram’s giant audience, a dynamic that Similarweb’s analysis may well reflect in daily usage. When your friends, favorite athletes, or media brands can seamlessly transport you to a sibling app overnight, the odds of capturing habit increase monumentally.
Officially, Meta says Threads has attracted hundreds of millions of monthly active users. Though monthly numbers are a wider lens than was available in 2016, they indicate the top of the funnel is strong — and that the service is converting a sizable chunk of those users into daily behavior.
X Is Still Top On The Web Despite Mobile Gains
The picture changes on desktop. Similarweb’s data indicates that X has a large lead in web traffic, thanks to years of ingrained behavior from journalists, traders and power users who travel with X open in a browser tab. Embeds that are widespread across media properties also spur web sessions, in which Threads still lags even as its software is incorporated into publishers’ stacks.
This is important for perception and influence: When news breaks, X has long been the default second screen in newsrooms and at live events. For Threads to turn daily user parity into lasting leadership, it would have needed to continue getting better at real-time discovery and becoming more deeply entrenched within professional and civic conversations.
Mind The Metrics: How DAU And MAU Shape Comparisons
All user metrics are not created equal. Daily active users are a gauge of habit; monthly active users measure reach. DAU of a mobile app is driven by ecosystem referrals, and web-side traffic indicates different behaviors. This often involves third-party companies like Similarweb, Sensor Tower, and data.ai, which rely on panels and modeling that are helpful for directionally following trends but not equivalent to first-party disclosures.
Context also counts. Research from outfits like the Reuters Institute suggests both that audiences’ news consumption habits are changing on social platforms and that more people are attracted to visual formats and private sharing. That could be a boon for networks with close ties to photo and video communities, as long as they can foster conversation on time-sensitive issues without being overwhelmed by noise.
What To Watch Next As Threads Pushes For Leadership
There are a few catalysts that will decide if Threads can go from a boost of mobile attention to long-term leadership: continued investment in real-time features and recommendations, more media and creator tool API attachment, and solid, enforceable brand-safety standards to keep advertisers happy. And Meta’s work on interoperability through protocols like ActivityPub could also become a gateway for distribution and discovery beyond a single app.
It turns out that what really matters is both simple and profound: daily habit shapes the social graph. If Threads continues to gain traction on phones while closing the web gap, the balance of power in text-based social could tip for the first time in years.