Meta’s Threads surpassing X in monthly users: Meta says it, but does not publish the metric

Meta’s Threads, the company’s answer to X, has gained a key advantage in social media engagement, at least according to what Meta has told investors. In a market report published Oct. 22, the company said Threads now has more monthly users than X, but it did not publish a specific user count to substantiate the claim in that communication.

The report also notes a disconnect between the headline user-growth narrative and what investors can verify from Meta’s financial record. Meta has not provided a published number showing how Threads’s monthly-user lead is translating into measurable benefits in its reported results, which can make it harder for outsiders to gauge whether the platform’s momentum is material and sustainable.

A user-count comparison matters because monthly users are often used as a broad indicator of reach, frequency of visits, and the size of an advertiser-facing audience. For Meta, Threads is strategically important because it is built on the same underlying network as Instagram, which can speed distribution, while also giving Meta a second, distinct social experience beyond Facebook and Instagram.

Still, the lack of a published metric is likely to keep skepticism in play. When companies do not provide the underlying numbers in investor communications, external observers may have difficulty distinguishing between true audience leadership and temporary effects, such as campaign-driven traffic, changes in measurement methodology, or differences in how “monthly users” are defined across platforms.

The market context also matters. X has been through multiple rounds of leadership, product changes, and monetization experiments since it was acquired by Elon Musk, and user numbers have been a moving target for analysts and media. Against that backdrop, a claim of overtaking X may be meaningful, but without a figure and a clear definition, it is not fully testable.

Meta has not used its official newsroom as a primary channel for monthly-user disclosures in the way it does for product launches and policy updates, which can leave the most relevant engagement metrics buried in earnings conversations or private investor materials. In cases like this, executives can announcement momentum while keeping operational details or measurement conventions internal.

For now, the company’s exact “monthly users” number for Threads, the time period it refers to, and how it is measured relative to X remain unclear based on the Oct. 22 report. That means readers should treat the overtaking claim as an investor-facing statement rather than a figure Meta has publicly verified in a way that can be audited.

What to watch next is whether Meta later publishes engagement metrics for Threads more explicitly, such as in future earnings materials, investor presentations, or formal updates that include definitions and time ranges. Another tell will be whether Threads engagement shows up indirectly in product behavior, advertising performance, or cross-app audience measures that Meta reports over time.