Muse, Meta's AI assistant, reaches 10 million U.S. downloads in just 40 days

Muse, Meta's AI companion, now ranks among the twelve mobile apps that have reached 10 million US downloads within their first 40 days on the market. According to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the app has racked up 10.9 million downloads since its September debut, 10.2 million of them in the US.

Only 11 other apps have achieved a similar milestone after launch, according to Kara Lee, senior analyst at Sensor Tower. The most recent was Threads, also from Meta, in July 2023. The rest are mostly mobile games, such as Fortnite, PUBG Mobile and Pokémon GO. Apart from Threads, Disney+ is the only non-game app in that group.

The article attributes part of the success to Meta's ability to boost its new apps through its other services. The company's family of apps now totals 3.6 billion daily active users. Threads leveraged Instagram's social graph, and its content was integrated into Facebook and Instagram. Muse benefits from similar cross-promotion.

Meta is also spending heavily on advertising to attract users. According to Sensor Tower, it allocated 39% of its total ad spend to Muse in October, up from 23% the previous month. Muse is now the 21st US brand by ad impressions this month. In September it ranked 73rd.

User retention, usually the tough test after the initial surge, also favors Muse. In the US it retained 30% of its users after 7 days and 23% after 14 days. Its rivals (ChatGPT, Claude and Grok) average 19% and 16% respectively, according to Sensor Tower.

Daily usage is growing too. Muse hit 2.5 million daily active users for the first time on October 16, up 15% from the previous week. The text describes the app as an AI agent capable of performing various tasks on the user's behalf. It reached No. 1 on the App Store and, at one point, surpassed some of the metrics ChatGPT posted after its launch.

Compared with rivals, ChatGPT logged 3.7 million US downloads in its first 40 days. Grok drew 500,000 and Claude 200,000. Globally, ChatGPT outpaces Muse, with around 15 million downloads over the same period. The article cautions that the comparison is not a fair one. Muse is currently available only in the US and Canada, while ChatGPT drew users in markets such as Japan, Brazil and Germany. Japan accounted for 25% of its global installs in those 40 days.

Muse has held the No. 1 spot on the US App Store every day except October 19, when it was briefly overtaken by streaming app Kick. It regained the top spot on Tuesday. On Google Play it has been the No. 1 app for the past 30 days.

Most of the figures come from Sensor Tower, as cited by the outlet. The article provides no revenue data or technical details about the product.