Similarweb: in September, X's global monthly website traffic fell 14% YoY, US traffic declined 19% YoY, while traffic to Elon Musk's profile page was up 96% YoY
Context & Ripple Effects
The September reading extends the contraction Similarweb had already recorded in March, when Twitter saw a third consecutive month of traffic decline. It also arrives as the platform's U.S. advertising revenue was reported to have fallen sharply for much of the period after the ownership change.
The divergence between declining site traffic and increased visits to Musk's profile suggests that attention on X was becoming more concentrated around its owner, rather than expanding across the service.
First-order effects
- X's web audience was smaller year over year in both its global and U.S. markets, with the U.S. decline steeper than the global figure.
- Musk's profile drew substantially more web traffic even as the wider site contracted, increasing the prominence of his account within X's observed web usage.
Second-order effects
- A shrinking web audience weakens a visible measure of reach for advertisers and publishers; that compounds pressure already evident in X's sustained U.S. ad-revenue decline.
- Product and commercial teams would need to distinguish owner-driven attention from broad platform engagement, since profile interest does not necessarily translate into activity across the wider service.
Third-order effects
- If this divergence persists, X could become more dependent on personality-led attention while its broader network utility erodes—a less resilient base for advertising and creator activity.
- The pattern also underscores that web-traffic metrics are only one view of platform health; sustained assessment requires separating website behavior from app usage and other forms of engagement.
The trend: X is showing a broader shift in which platform-wide audience erosion can coexist with intensified attention around its owner, complicating the conversion of attention into a durable ad business.