Meta’s Threads has officially overtaken Elon Musk’s X in daily mobile users, according to new data from market intelligence firm Similarweb, marking a major shift in the social media landscape.
As of January 7, 2026, Threads recorded 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android, compared to 125 million for X. While X still dominates on the web, Threads’ mobile growth has been steadily climbing for months.
This shift doesn’t appear to be directly tied to X’s recent controversies, including the discovery that users were generating non-consensual nude images using the platform’s AI tool, Grok, incidents that triggered investigations by California’s attorney general and regulators in the UK, EU, India, and Brazil. The backlash has also driven a spike in downloads for rival platform Bluesky.
Instead, Threads’ momentum seems driven by Meta’s aggressive cross-promotion across Instagram and Facebook, its creator-focused roadmap, and rapid product expansion. Over the past year, Threads has introduced interest-based communities, improved filters, direct messages, longer posts, disappearing content, and even early testing of games.
Meta previously reported that Threads crossed 400 million monthly active users in August 2025 and reached 150 million daily active users by October, suggesting sustained adoption rather than a short-term spike.
While X still holds a strong lead in web traffic with around 145 million daily web visits compared to Threads’ 8.5 million Similarweb says the gap on mobile continues to narrow, particularly in the U.S., where X’s lead has shrunk significantly over the past year.
Threads isn’t just a Twitter alternative anymore it’s becoming the default mobile habit for real-time conversations. With Meta’s distribution power and rapid feature rollout, Threads is steadily reshaping where social discourse happens on phones, even as X retains dominance on the web.
