Muse Crosses 10.2 Million U.S. Downloads in 40 Days, Joining a Club of Just 12 Apps
Sensor Tower data puts Muse past 10.2 million U.S. downloads in its first 40 days, one of only a dozen apps to ever hit that mark, with retention running ahead of ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok
By Icarus3 min read
Muse Crosses 10.2 Million U.S. Downloads in 40 Days, Joining a Club of Just 12 Apps
Sensor Tower puts the assistant’s first-40-day pace ahead of ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude, backed by a heavy Meta ad push.
Meta’s Muse has passed 10.2 million U.S. downloads in its first 40 days on the market, according to new Sensor Tower data reported by TechCrunch. Only 11 other apps in history have hit 10 million U.S. downloads within 40 days of launch, Sensor Tower senior insights analyst Kara Lee told TechCrunch, making Muse the 12th. The most recent was Meta’s own Threads, back in July 2023.
Total downloads across all markets now stand at 10.9 million, the firm says. The milestone adds a harder benchmark to the launch curve the site has been tracking. BNP Paribas estimated Muse past 10.4 million downloads in a client note earlier this month, using different third-party data.
A club dominated by games
The apps that reached this pace before Muse were largely mobile games, Lee said: Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, and Pokémon GO among them. Apart from Threads, the only other non-game app to make the list was Disney+.
Meta’s ability to market across its own properties is a large part of the story. Muse is being promoted across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which reach 3.6 billion daily users combined, and Meta is spending heavily to push the assistant beyond that. The company has allocated 39% of its total U.S. advertising spend to Muse in October, up from 23% in September, Sensor Tower said. By ad impressions, Muse ranks as the 21st largest brand in the country this month, up from 73rd last month.
Retention is running ahead of rivals
Downloads measure reach; the harder test is habit. There, Sensor Tower’s numbers put Muse ahead of its direct competitors: the app holds a 30% seven-day retention rate and a 23% 14-day rate, compared with an average of 19% and 16% across rival AI apps, the firm said.
Daily active users reached 2.5 million for the first time on October 16, up 15% week over week. The app has also held the No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store every day since launch except October 19, when the streaming app Kick briefly took the top spot. Muse has since reclaimed it, and it has led Google Play over the past 30 days.
ChatGPT saw 3.7 million U.S. downloads in its first 40 days; Grok managed about 500,000 and Claude about 200,000. Globally, ChatGPT still leads with around 15 million downloads in its first 40 days, but that comparison is lopsided. Muse is only available in the U.S. and Canada so far, while ChatGPT drew attention worldwide; Japan alone accounted for 25% of its early global installs.
Why it matters
The 40-day milestone is a harder test than a raw download total, and Muse cleared it with room to spare. Combined with the retention edge and the climb to 2.5 million daily users, the numbers suggest Meta’s ad spending is buying more than curiosity. The open questions remain the ones analysts flagged earlier this month (whether downloads translate into durable engagement and revenue), but Muse has now passed every early benchmark it has been measured against.
Meta did not disclose its own download figures; all numbers in this story come from Sensor Tower via TechCrunch.
