Threads and X Engage in a Close Competition for User Base

Recent statistics reveal a competitive landscape between the social media platforms Threads and X, as both vie for dominance in daily active users. According to data from market research firm Similarweb, Threads, developed by Meta, has experienced significant growth, reaching 115.1 million daily active users, which marks a remarkable increase of 127.8% year over year. In contrast, X has seen a decline of 15.2%, bringing its total down to 132 million daily active users.

The implications of this trend are particularly concerning for Elon Musk, the owner of X, especially in terms of advertising revenue potential. Despite the decline in daily active users, X maintains a strong presence on the web, leading with 145.8 million daily visits compared to Threads' 6.9 million.

Furthermore, the analysis highlights that smaller competitors in the social media sphere are struggling to keep pace with these two giants. For instance, Bluesky has increased its mobile app usage by an impressive 372.5% over the past year, reaching 4.1 million daily active users. However, with only 37 million registered users, it remains significantly smaller than both Threads and X. According to Musk, X boasts approximately 600 million monthly active users, while Threads reports around 350 million.

Interestingly, the decentralized platform Mastodon, which is not mentioned in Similarweb's findings, claims to have around 791,380 monthly active users as of July 7, 2025. The rapid growth of Threads may be further enhanced by the introduction of new features, such as direct messaging capabilities and the 'Threads Highlighter,' which promotes trending topics within user feeds. Notably, Threads was launched only two years ago and has quickly gained traction, while Bluesky added direct messaging features in May 2024.