Sensor Tower: in February 2024, X had 27M US DAUs of its mobile app, down 18% YoY, and the US user base has been flat or down every month since November 2022
X usage has declined as downloads of Threads have surged in recent weeks. — The number of people using X daily is falling … Threads: @lorakolodny , @georgescriban , @clarajeffery , @chancerydaily , @goldengateblond , @parkermolloy , @jjackyliang , @drewharwell , @guillecummings , @simondowens , @datadrivenmd , @davechensky , @zerocool6687 , and @darkzuckerberg Mastodon: @darnell@one.darnell.one , @Tinido@chaos.social , and @Khrys@mamot.fr X: @kenklippenstein , @noahpinion , @swannmarcus89 , @danlehnermusic , @carnage4life , and @joshconstine . LinkedIn: Josh Sternberg Forums: r/EnoughMuskSpam , r/technology , and r/Twitter Threads: Lora Kolodny / @lorakolodny : “X has been helped by the lack of a clear text-based social media alternative. Threads, a competitor launched by Instagram and its parent company, Meta, had 1.6 million daily active U.S. mobile users in February, according to Sensor Tower, and 14 million worldwide.” @georgescriban : Good ol' FB and Snapchat—two of the (IMO) worst user experiences ever delivered in an app, and they just keep chugging along. Clara Jeffery / @clarajeffery : Platforms have chosen to drive users AWAY from news so as to both sop up all ad revenue and (misguidedly) fend of criticism. If you only get your news from social and/or don't curate your feed actively, you're just playing into the hands of those who wan to take your money and leave you ignorant. @chancerydaily : business genius Shauna Wright / @goldengateblond : almost 14,000 of my twitter followers alone have deactivated in the past year. but please, linda yaccarino, do go on about the explosive growth the platform is seeing. 🙄 Parker Molloy / @parkermolloy : Wow. https://www.nbcnews.com/... Jacky / @jjackyliang : out of curiosity, i wonder how accurate this data from sensor tower is, because they don't actually have access to the raw data, just aggregations from surveying and vpn traffic, right? also, while i know elon himself has zero credibility, he does mention twitter is at an “all time high” Drew Harwell / @drewharwell : Yes but its unregretted user-minutes metric is also at an all-time low @guillecummings : Yet some reporters were takin Elon saying that usage on Twitter had increased at face value. Simon Owens / @simondowens : Interesting that YouTube isn't on this chart Jorge Caballero / @datadrivenmd : “But so far, the downloads haven't translated into sustained growth for Threads, according to Sensor Tower. Another X competitor, Bluesky, was even smaller, with 195,000 U.S. daily active mobile users in February, according to the research firm.” … David Chen / @davechensky : Concerning. Ron Klatt / @zerocool6687 : My favourite part of this... it's evidence of how out of touch twitter people were for a while... I constantly saw shit about “who even uses Facebook”... and it's right there... everybody lol Steven Ojo / @darkzuckerberg : That Instagram graph is surprising Mastodon: @darnell@one.darnell.one : So #X is dying, but #ElonMusk says analysts are lying, & advertisers are fleeing the site formally known as #Twitter. — 👉🏾 Fewer people are using Elon Musk's X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts https://www.nbcnews.com/... … Christina Dongowski / @Tinido@chaos.social : Interesting article on the massive decline of #Twitter usage in the US and worldwide, and the decline of #SocialMedia usage in general. There are also numbers on worldwide usage (decline of Twitter, stable numbers for others, but no real dynamic) — Fewer people using Elon Musk's X as it struggles to keep users … @Khrys@mamot.fr : Fewer people are using Elon Musk's X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts — https://www.nbcnews.com/... X usage has declined as downloads of Threads have surged in recent weeks. — From one evil to another. X: Ken Klippenstein / @kenklippenstein : 🚀🚀🚀 [image] Noah Smith / @noahpinion : Good to see that my impression that X is becoming a bit of a ghost town wasn't just me going crazy. Also, good to see social media use in general drifting downward. Humankind is slowly adapting and learning how to handle this new technology. [image] Swann Marcus / @swannmarcus89 : We're missing the good news here: every app has fewer daily users than in 2022 We are so back (to touching grass) @danlehnermusic : That nosedive in July is almost certainly from the “rate limit exceeded” thing when the site essentially DDoS'd itself — just this unbelievable unforced technical error they never recovered from Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Really incredible that someone can be good at running companies full of rocket scientists (SpaceX) or brain surgeons (NeuraLink) but then totally 💩the 🛏️ running a social media site. It really makes you wonder... [image] Josh Constine / @joshconstine : -Every app has shrunk since the pandemic -Fb appears to hold strong but actually trading lucrative western users for emerging market users -TikTok declining now we have real life as entertainment -Can't seem to figure out Twitter 🙄 LinkedIn: Josh Sternberg : David Ingram with the report that “The number of people using X daily is falling, more than a year after tech billionaire Elon Musk bought the app formerly known as Twitter. … Forums: r/EnoughMuskSpam : Fewer people are using Elon Musk's X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts r/technology : Fewer people are using Elon Musk's X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts r/Twitter : Fewer people are using Elon Musk's X as the platform struggles to attract and keep users, according to analysts
Context & Ripple Effects
Sensor Tower’s estimate puts a measurable scale on X’s U.S. mobile-user erosion after a period of product changes that included requiring users to sign in before browsing posts and profiles and removing article headlines from shared links.
The report also arrives as Threads downloads rise and as X experiments with new formats and monetization, including planned ad-supported and ad-free premium tiers. It matters because it distinguishes X’s continued cultural relevance from the size and trajectory of its everyday mobile audience.
First-order effects
- X’s U.S. mobile daily audience was about 27 million in February, 18% below a year earlier; a user base that has not grown since November 2022 reduces the immediately addressable mobile audience for posts, ads, and subscriptions.
- Threads gains a clearer opening to convert heightened download interest into habitual use, though the reported figures establish coincidence with X’s decline rather than user-by-user switching.
Second-order effects
- X’s ad and premium strategy faces more pressure to extract revenue from a smaller or stagnant daily mobile audience, while preserving enough reach for creators and brands.
- Competing text-first social platforms have more incentive to emphasize low-friction onboarding and feed discovery as they vie for users dissatisfied with X’s experience.
Third-order effects
- If declining daily use persists, the public-conversation market may become more fragmented: platforms can retain distinct high-engagement communities without one service retaining broad default reach.
- The durable competitive test shifts from attracting downloads to building repeat daily behavior; mobile DAUs are the more consequential measure for ad-funded social networks than episodic attention.
The trend: This is one data point in the unbundling of the real-time social audience, as rivals seek to turn dissatisfaction and curiosity into durable daily habits.