Muse, the AI app Meta launched in September, has passed about 10.2 million downloads in the US in its first 40 days, according to Sensor Tower data reported by TechCrunch. It is one of only 12 mobile apps ever to reach that mark so fast. Most of the others are games such as Fortnite, PUBG Mobile and Pokémon GO; Disney+ is the only other non-game, and the last app to do it was Meta's own Threads, in July 2023.
Ahead of the chatbots
Muse is an AI companion that can also carry out tasks for its users. In the US, it beat the launches of the best-known AI apps by a wide margin: ChatGPT drew about 3.7 million US downloads in its first 40 days, Grok about 500,000 and Claude about 200,000, according to Sensor Tower. Worldwide the picture differs: ChatGPT reached about 15 million downloads in its first 40 days, but it launched in many more countries, while Muse is only available in the US and Canada.
People also keep coming back. Muse's daily active users passed 2.5 million for the first time on 16 October, up 15% in a week. Its 7-day retention in the US is 30%, against an average of 19% for ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, and its 14-day retention is 23%, against 16%. It has held the top spot on the US App Store on every day since shortly after launch except 19 October, and has been number one on Google Play for 30 days.
Meta paid for the launch
This was not organic luck. Meta put 39% of its total ad spend behind Muse in October, up from 23% in September, according to Sensor Tower, which made Muse the 21st largest brand in the US by ad impressions, up from 73rd. It is also promoted across Meta's apps, which reach 3.6 billion people every day.
