Similarweb data has Threads ahead of X in mobile daily active users (about 141.5M to 125M) with growth still climbing, even as X keeps a large lead on the web and in total accounts — a split that changes where creators should publish.
2026-09-14 · by Moe Ameen
Threads, Meta's text-based network, has pulled ahead of X on the metric that matters most for reach on phones: mobile daily active users. Reporting in January 2026 on Similarweb data put Threads at roughly 141.5 million mobile daily active users against X's 125 million (combined Android and iOS). Threads first edged past X on mobile in mid-September 2025 — Similarweb data showed a narrow lead in the week of September 15–21, 2025, after the two platforms briefly traded the lead earlier that month — and held the edge through its October monthly average, confirmed in reporting published in early November 2025, widening the gap since rather than briefly touching it.
The lead is real but not total. X still dominates on the web, where the same reporting put daily visitors at about 145.4 million for X versus roughly 8.5 million for Threads, so on combined mobile-plus-web daily users X remains the larger platform. X also still carries a larger overall account base by most third-party estimates. The story is a mobile-usage crossover and a divergence in momentum, not a wholesale changing of the guard.
The momentum is the part creators should read closely. Threads has grown quickly — third-party trackers put it in the range of 400–500 million monthly active users heading into 2026, and Meta reported a 500-million monthly milestone in mid-2026 — while X's daily and monthly figures have been flat to declining over the same window. Forecasters have extended that trend: eMarketer projects Threads to pass X on U.S. users by 2027 (roughly 59.1 million to 51.1 million), with Threads growing double digits year over year and X contracting slightly.
Meta has fed the shift with features and distribution. Over the past year Threads added DMs, improved filtering, interest-based communities, long-form text, disappearing posts, and began testing games, while cross-promotion from Instagram and Facebook keeps funneling users in. Treat the exact figures as third-party estimates that vary by source and month, and the "bigger than X" claim as specific to mobile daily usage rather than every metric.
The practical takeaway is not "abandon X for Threads" — it's that a creator now has to maintain a real presence on both text networks without doubling the work, and hedge against the next usage swing by not living on either one alone. That "same idea, reshaped per platform, published everywhere, consistently" problem is exactly what [Kompozy](/) is built for, and the angle here is covering a two-horse race rather than picking a winner. Start from one source and a single [Persona Brief](/glossary/persona-brief) that fixes your voice, and Kompozy generates the platform-appropriate variants in one pass: a punchy Text Post shaped for X's fast-take norms and a longer, conversational version for Threads, plus the graphics, [Clipped Shorts](/glossary/clipped-short), and brand-exact carousels via [HyperFrames](/glossary/hyperframes) that carry the same point to Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and beyond. Both X and Threads are first-class publishing destinations, so the same batch fans out to both from one queue instead of two separate posting habits you have to keep alive by hand. See the playbooks for [building a brand on Threads](/how-to/build-a-brand-presence-on-threads) and [on X](/how-to/build-a-brand-presence-on-x).
The hedge is the second half. [Autopilot](/glossary/autopilot) schedules and publishes across the eight social platforms plus a blog and an email newsletter behind a per-post review gate, so your reach is spread across surfaces you don't control and a list you do. If Threads' momentum keeps compounding, you're already there at full cadence; if X reverses the trend, you never left. And because Kompozy also generates net-new formats — avatar-narrated [Persona Shorts](/glossary/persona-shorts), infographics, quote graphics, a blog article, and a newsletter — one week's source material becomes a steady, on-brand presence on both text networks and everywhere else, without you choosing which platform to neglect. Cover the race, don't call it.
On mobile daily active users, yes — Similarweb data reported in January 2026 put Threads at about 141.5 million to X's 125 million, and Threads has held the lead since first pulling ahead on mobile in mid-September 2025. But X still leads on web visitors (roughly 145.4 million to 8.5 million daily) and on total accounts, so on combined mobile-plus-web daily users X remains larger. The "bigger" claim is specific to mobile daily usage.
For most creators it's not either/or. The audiences overlap only partially and the two platforms reward different formats — Threads leans conversational and long-form-friendly, X favors fast takes and threads. The better play is a consistent presence on both plus your other channels, weighting Threads for its growth momentum. The practical constraint is doing that without doubling your workload, which is where a generation-and-publishing engine helps.
Start from one source and one Persona Brief in a tool like Kompozy, which generates a Threads-shaped version and an X-shaped version of the same idea in a single pass, then schedules and publishes both from one queue alongside Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, a blog, and email. You reshape once and fan out, instead of maintaining two separate posting habits by hand.
Reporting attributes Threads' growth to a steady stream of features (DMs, better filters, interest-based communities, long-form text, disappearing posts, games testing) and heavy cross-promotion from Instagram and Facebook, plus Meta's established ad and analytics infrastructure. X's decline is tied in the same reporting to ongoing content-moderation controversies. Treat these as reported factors, and the specific figures as third-party estimates that vary by source.