Since peak volume on July 7, the number of active daily Threads users has fallen by 70%, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, as reported by Forbes. The actual number of daily users is around 13 million, down from 44 million on July 7. And the average amount of time spent using the app each day is 4 minutes, down from a peak of 19 minutes. In contrast, Twitter (X) has around 200 million active daily users, while the average daily time spent using the service is 30 minutes.
Why such a drop in active use? There are several reasons.
First, people weary of Elon Musk’s antics likely flocked to Threads, hoping for a white knight only to discover a platform lacking several key features. Second, with Facebook and X and Instagram and Bluesky and Threads and Tik Tok, we’re now flooded with social networks, limiting the amount of time and interest for any one service. Third, many websites include icons through which you can share content directly on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Threads so far lacks that type of integration.
Also: 5 reasons to try Twitter rival Bluesky
Still, the folks behind Threads are putting up a brave face in the midst of declining user numbers. In a thread posted on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he was optimistic about the way the Threads community is coming together.
“Early growth was off the charts, but more importantly tens of millions of people now come back daily,” Zuckerberg added. “That’s way ahead of what we expected. The focus for the rest of the year is improving the basics and retention. It’ll take time to stabilize, but once we nail that then we’ll focus on growing the community. We’ve run this playbook many times (FB, IG, Stories, Reels, etc.) and I’m confident Threads is on a good path too.”
