In a year and a half, the number of users on X has decreased by approximately 25%
Sensor Tower released data on the number of daily active users on the mobile application of X, formerly Twitter. The data shows that in the United States, the number of daily active users on the mobile application has decreased by almost 25% since Elon Musk acquired the platform.
Worldwide, Sensor Tower’s data shows a 15% decline in the number of daily active users on X's mobile application.
Figure 1 shows a global downward trend: TikTok and Instagram are also experiencing a decrease in the number of daily active users on their mobile application. However, X is the platform that has by far the most important decline. The decline accelerated in the summer of 2023, when Elon Musk renamed Twitter to X.
While this data is not directly comparable to what Sensor Tower measures, X claims to have 250 million daily active users. If this data is true, it shows a stagnation since Elon Musk acquired the platform. At the time of the acquisition, Twitter reported 258 million daily monetizable active users (which is another, different variable).
David Ingram
Via Parker Molloy on Threads and Mathieu E. Rebeaud on Bluesky
To the best of my knowledge, the only data that does not show a substantial decrease in the number of active users on X comes from X, Elon Musk, and Linda Yaccarino.
Without necessarily claiming that it is false, from my point of view, the data published by X is not credible. As the company is no longer publicly traded, it faces no legal risk by publishing manipulated or even false data. The data released by X almost always contradicts all other sources. Both Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino are known for bending reality to fit it with what they want to believe. Last but not least, there is a growing accumulation of anecdotes showing that entire communities have left the platform.
As for my own experience, the number of followers on my French-speaking X account, @EcoSceptique, has been decreasing since October 2022. Since 2016, I have never seen such a phenomenon.
Finally, I am curious to see additional data related to platform activity beyond active users.
For instance, on Mastodon, the number of monthly active users is declining (Figure 3a), which might suggest that the platform is becoming somewhat of a ghost town. However, the number of monthly posts remains consistently high (Figure 3b), which mean the average number of posts per monthly active user is increasing, contradicting the ghost town hypothesis.
Figure 3 - Number of monthly active users (a) and monthly posts on Mastodon (b). Source: fedidb.org.
Assuming that the data on the number of users published by X, Elon Musk, and Linda Yaccarino is true, what do other activity-related data points, such as daily or monthly post counts, would show? My speculation is that this other data would also show a steep reduction in activity on X.