Threads overtakes X on mobile, but still lags far behind

The Verge • January 19, 2026 • business

Key Points:

Meta’s Threads has surpassed Elon Musk’s platform X in daily mobile users globally, with 141.5 million compared to X’s 125 million as of January 7th.
Threads overtook X between late October and early November after steady growth, indicating the milestone was not driven by recent controversies around X’s AI tool Grok.
In the US, X still leads in mobile users, but Threads is rapidly closing the gap, while X’s US daily mobile user count has halved compared to last year.
Despite Threads’ mobile user growth, X maintains a significant lead in web traffic with 145.4 million daily visitors versus Threads’ 8.5 million as of January 13th.
Combined