Social Rocket
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg now sees Threads on equal footing with X – or already ahead of it. In an interview with Alex Heath's podcast "Sources", he said that in his assessment Threads is either already bigger than X or about to be. At the same time, Zuckerberg explained why Meta itself continues to post on both platforms: certain communities, especially around AI and technology, remain strongly represented on X.
The statement is relevant, but it should not be read as a clearly proven platform ranking. Meta now publishes concrete user figures for Threads; X currently does not provide a directly comparable, regularly audited global metric. Depending on the metric, the comparison also comes out differently.
Threads officially has 500 million monthly users
On 16 June 2026, Meta reported that Threads had reached the milestone of 500 million monthly active users. As recently as August 2025, the platform had more than 400 million monthly users.
In parallel, Meta is building Threads more around communities rather than just a general text feed. Communities have been taken out of beta, local variants are being expanded, and with Your Algo users can weight certain topics more or less strongly in their feed.
This fits a broader Meta trend: users get more options to actively influence recommendation algorithms. Similar developments are happening on Instagram; our overview of Instants, Reels series and more algorithm control shows how strongly Meta is currently working on its recommendation surfaces.
On smartphones, Threads is already ahead of X according to Similarweb
Independent usage data provides a clear signal, at least for mobile. Similarweb estimated for 7 January 2026 that worldwide Threads had around 141,5 million daily active mobile users and X around 125 million on iOS and Android.
However, this does not automatically mean Threads is larger overall. On the web, the ratio at that point was almost reversed: according to Similarweb, X reached around 145,4 million daily web visits in mid-January, while Threads reached about 8,5 million across Threads.com and Threads.net combined.
Mobile daily active users and web visits are also different measurement units and must not be added into a single user figure. The more meaningful finding is therefore: Threads is now at least competitive with X on mobile, while X still holds a clearly stronger position on the open web.
Zuckerberg himself offers the most important marketing lesson
What is more interesting than who sits exactly at first place in a global ranking is this: Zuckerberg himself explained that Meta remains active on X because other communities concentrate there. That is precisely the more practical view for brands and creators too.
Two platforms with similar overall reach can have very different community graphs, topics and usage situations. Anyone who simply duplicates content automatically across Threads and X gains additional distribution but hardly makes use of these differences.
For Threads, the deep integration into Meta's mobile ecosystem and the building of its own communities are the current strengths. X remains especially strong for real-time discussions, links, news and certain specialist communities. The right question is therefore not only "where are there more users?", but "where does the relevant conversation for this topic take place?"
More user control could further change discovery
That Meta is simultaneously expanding community features and controls over the algorithm is also important for organic reach. When users actively upweight or downweight topics, community fit becomes an even stronger distribution signal.
The political debate about recommendation feeds goes even further. In Australia, rules are currently being discussed that could give users a clearer choice between algorithmic recommendations and followed accounts. We explain what consequences such requirements could have for discovery in our article on the planned algorithm opt-out in Australia.
For brands, Threads by 2026 is therefore no longer an experimental Instagram offshoot. The platform has reached a scale at which a deliberate content and community strategy can make sense – without concluding from this that X has automatically become irrelevant.