Meta’s Threads overtakes Elon Musk's X on mobile with 141 million daily users

Meta Platforms Inc.'s Threads has achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing Elon Musk's X in daily mobile users, indicating a notable shift in the social media arena. As of January 7, 2026, Threads boasts approximately 141.5 million daily active users on mobile devices, compared to X's 125 million, according to insights from Similarweb. This growth highlights Threads’ increasing popularity on smartphones, even as X remains the leader in desktop web traffic. X retains a substantial monthly web audience, attracting 434.1 million new users globally, while Threads, primarily functioning as an app, has seen 737,505 new monthly users. TechCrunch, which broke the story, suggests that this mobile user shift signals an ongoing trend in Threads' adoption rather than being solely a reaction to X's recent challenges. X has faced scrutiny due to its AI chatbot Grok, which has been implicated in generating and sharing non-consensual explicit images. The California attorney general has initiated an investigation into these practices. Concurrently, other platforms resembling X are witnessing a surge in popularity, with Bluesky experiencing a notable rise in iOS downloads amid concerns over AI-generated deepfakes associated with X. In India, X still dominates web traffic, commanding an impressive 99.9% of social microblogging web usage, while Threads, being app-only, captures a mere 0.1%. Meta has been actively promoting Threads through its other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, contributing to its swift growth. The company reported in October 2025 that Threads had surpassed 150 million daily active users worldwide, thanks to regular feature enhancements and improved integration within Meta's ecosystem.