It looks like Threads is making a comeback

Instagram Threads was the fastest-growing social media platform on the planet… until it wasn’t. Obviously, user interest dropped off significantly since its peak, as people logged on to find a barren wasteland of an app. However, it appears that Threads is making a comeback.

In case you don’t remember, Threads launched back in July 2023, and user engagement exploded. Within a few weeks, Threads had achieved over 100 million users. This was the perfect time for Threads to launch, as that was a moment in time when Elon Musk was making some of his worst decisions regarding Twitter at the time. Remember the rate limits? Also, remember when you couldn’t see posts when not logged in?

This was a perfect storm that Meta needed to boost Threads to the stratosphere. However, what goes up must come down; Threads’ user engagement dropped off significantly afterward. It had lost more than 50% of its user base as people cracked into the app, used it, and then forgot about it. But, Meta was not worried about this, as the company seemed to know what it was doing. This is Meta we’re talking about, the company that owns two of the most popular social media websites in the world. We can trust that it knows what it’s doing.

Well, it looks like Threads is making a comeback

While there was this huge drop-off, Meta was confident Threads’ fortunes would turn. And, it appears that this is happening. According to some new reports, Threads has been regaining some momentum in terms of app downloads and active users. In fact, Threads was actually able to break the top 10 most downloaded apps in December 2023.

On the Google Play Store, the app saw 16 million downloads (8th most downloaded app of the month). On the iOS App Store, it saw 12 million (4th most downloaded). This means that it was able to outperform other apps such as Snapchat, Spotify, telegram, and X. Across both app stores, it totaled 28 million downloads, and it was the 6th most downloaded app.

In fact, December was the first time that the app was able to crack the top 10 since last August. So, the app is regaining steam that it had lost.

Another indicator that Threads is making a comeback is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Threads was at just under 100 million users in October. Since then, the company has unveiled additional features to make using Threads even better. Currently, Threads is working on bringing DMS to the platform, and it may have a way of doing so.

X is having some trouble

On the other side of the social media pond, we have Elon Musk’s X. This app’s numbers were not so hot in December 2023. It was the 36th most downloaded app across both stores. It totaled 9 million downloads with 6 million of them being from the Google Play Store, and the remaining 3 million being from iOS. So, X was able to gain about 33% as many downloads as Threads.

As time goes on, Threads is going to introduce more features. However, in the case of X, we can’t really be confident that the company is going to unveil any changes that people will like. Under Elon Musk’s rule, many of the changes we’ve experienced have been controversial and infuriating. So, we’re just going to have to see how these companies plan to perform in 2024.