Threads just achieved its biggest milestone yet

Meta’s Threads is on a roll.

The social networking app is now home to more than 400 million monthly active users, Meta shared with Fast Company on Tuesday. That’s 50 million more than just a few months ago, and a long way from the 175 million it had around its first birthday last summer.

Launched in July 2023 with a record-breaking 100 million signups in its first days, Threads quickly positioned itself as Meta’s best shot at challenging Elon Musk’s X.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, made no secret of his ambitions back then, setting a goal of one billion users. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it,” he wrote at the time. “Hopefully we will.”

Today’s numbers suggest that bet is paying off, although that one billion goal is still a bit far away.

Neck and neck on mobile

A big part of the story now is just how close Threads is getting to X when it comes to daily use on phones.

Data from Similarweb shows that Threads had 115.1 million daily active mobile users in June—that’s up a whopping 128% from last year. X still has the edge at 132 million, but it’s sliding, with daily actives down more than 15% year over year.

In the U.S., the gap’s even smaller: 15.3 million daily mobile users for Threads versus 22.9 million for X, according to Similarweb.

X does not regularly share user data and did not respond to a request for more details about its current user base.

On the web? That’s where Threads is still lagging. X is pulled in 145.8 million daily visits in June compared to just 6.9 million for Threads. Bluesky, the smaller rival in this race, is even closer to Threads in web traffic than you might expect—though its daily mobile audience is tiny by comparison.

Finding its own vibe

Threads isn’t trying to be a carbon copy of X. Meta says 63% of posts are text-only, and people who use Threads every day follow less than half the same accounts they do on Instagram.

That means new communities are springing up—from “Bookthreads” for literature fans to basketball and music hubs—with a friendlier, less combative tone than you might find on some other platforms.

The app’s also been adding features fast: trending topics, live sports scores, a developer API for automated posts, and deeper connections to the fediverse so people can interact with Mastodon users and other decentralized networks.

Why now?

Threads’ momentum comes at a time when X is dealing with advertiser skepticism and growing competition from smaller players like Bluesky.

Social media as a whole is also more fragmented than ever, with different groups heading to Discord, LinkedIn, Reddit, or just group chats.

While four hundred million users is still a long way from Zuckerberg’s billion-user dream, with mobile usage nearly matching X’s, Threads isn’t just chasing anymore. It’s catching up.