Meta's Muse AI app has out-downloaded ChatGPT over the equivalent post-launch window, according to fresh Apptopia estimates. In the first 12 days on iOS in the US and Canada, Muse pulled in 1.8 million downloads to ChatGPT's 1.3 million, a roughly 38% lead. Globally, Muse has cleared 2.8 million installs since launch.
The comparison matters because the two apps launched under different conditions. ChatGPT went out worldwide but iOS-only. Muse shipped on both the App Store and Google Play, but only in the US and Canada. Apptopia narrowed the frame to iOS in those two countries to make the numbers directly comparable, and Muse still came out ahead.
Daily active users tell an even sharper story. Muse's US mobile app is running at 642,000 daily active users, against 231,000 for ChatGPT at the same point after its launch — nearly a 3x gap. Restricted to iOS only, Muse is still ahead at 359,000 daily active users.
Key facts
- 01Muse logged 1.8M iOS downloads in the US and Canada in its first 12 days, versus 1.3M for ChatGPT over the same window post-launch.
- 02Muse's US mobile daily active users hit 642,000, roughly 2.8x ChatGPT's 231,000 at the equivalent point.
- 03Global installs reached 2.8 million in 12 days, and Muse has climbed to No. 1 on the US App Store.
- 04Over 95% of Muse users are also Facebook users and 63% are on Instagram, giving Meta a built-in cross-promotion base.
- 05Meta's playbook worked once already with Threads, which now has more than 500 million users.
The app is also climbing charts rather than plateauing. Muse debuted at No. 2 on the US App Store and has since moved into the No. 1 spot, overtaking ChatGPT itself. A separate analytics firm, Appfigures, clocked Muse crossing 1 million downloads around the same window.
The distribution advantage is doing real work. Apptopia found that more than 95% of Muse users are also Facebook users and 63% use Instagram — meaning Meta is largely converting its existing audience rather than acquiring users cold. Muse also plugs into WhatsApp, giving it a third funnel most standalone AI apps cannot match.
Meta has run this play before. Threads launched in July 2023 on the back of Instagram identity and cross-promotion and now counts more than 500 million users. Muse is set up for the same treatment, with placement inside Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp already live.
There are caveats. Apptopia is a third-party estimator and does not have direct access to Meta's internal telemetry, so the numbers are ballpark rather than audited. Meta has not published its own figures on Muse adoption and did not respond to requests for comment. Retention beyond the first two weeks — the metric that separates a novelty install from a used app — is not in the data yet.
The comparison to ChatGPT's launch also flatters Muse in ways worth flagging. ChatGPT's mobile app arrived in May 2023, after the product had already accumulated hundreds of millions of web users, so the iOS launch was a wrapper on an existing hit rather than a cold start. Muse's mobile debut is closer to its actual product debut, which naturally concentrates downloads into the launch window.
Even with those caveats, the pace matters for Meta's AI strategy. The company has spent heavily on Meta Superintelligence Labs and on infrastructure to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and until now it lacked a consumer AI product with an obvious growth story. Muse, distributed through the largest social graph on the planet, changes that math. If early engagement holds, Meta finally has a chatbot that reaches users where they already are.
The risk for OpenAI is straightforward: ChatGPT's moat has been habit and brand, not distribution. Meta has more distribution than anyone. If Muse converts even a fraction of Facebook and Instagram's daily users into recurring AI users, the market share picture in consumer AI shifts fast — and it shifts toward the company that already knows how to keep people inside its apps.
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