Meta Muse downloads have crossed 10 million in the United States in only 40 days, according to new app data from Sensor Tower. That puts Meta’s AI agent app in a very small club, and it is now pulling well ahead of ChatGPT, Grok and Claude on early downloads and early retention.
Muse launched in September and is only available in the U.S. and Canada for now. Sensor Tower counts 10.9 million downloads in total, and 10.2 million of them came from U.S. users.
How Fast Meta Muse Downloads Grew
Only 11 other apps have ever hit 10 million U.S. downloads within 40 days of launch, Sensor Tower says. The most recent one was Threads, another Meta app, back in July 2023. Most of the rest were mobile games.
Muse has also held the top spot on the U.S. App Store almost every day since launch. The one exception was October 19, when the streaming app Kick briefly passed it, and Muse took the No. 1 spot back on Tuesday.
Muse has also been No. 1 on Google Play for the past 30 days.
Daily use is climbing too
Downloads alone can be misleading, so the usage numbers matter more. Sensor Tower estimates that Muse reached 2.5 million daily active users for the first time on October 16. That was a 15% jump from the week before.
Muse vs. ChatGPT, Grok and Claude in the First 40 Days
The gap with other AI apps is wide. Here is how each one did in its first 40 days in the U.S., based on Sensor Tower’s estimates.
| App | U.S. downloads in first 40 days | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Muse | 10.2 million | Available only in the U.S. and Canada |
| ChatGPT | 3.7 million | About 15 million worldwide in the same window |
| Grok | 500,000 | xAI’s assistant app |
| Claude | 200,000 | Anthropic’s assistant app |
Globally, ChatGPT still beat Muse in its own first 40 days, mostly because it launched in many countries at once. Japan alone made up about a quarter of ChatGPT’s early installs.
Why People Keep Coming Back
Getting people to install an app is one thing. Getting them to return a week later is much harder, and this is where Muse stands out.
- 7-day retention: 30% for Muse, versus an average of 19% for rival AI apps
- 14-day retention: 23% for Muse, versus an average of 16% for rivals
- Daily active users: 2.5 million on October 16, up 15% week over week
Those rival averages cover apps like ChatGPT, Claude and Grok. Muse can handle tasks on a user’s behalf, which may give people more reasons to open it again. You can read more about how personal AI assistants are changing everyday tasks.
Meta’s Marketing Push Behind Muse
Meta has a huge advantage when it launches something new. Its family of apps reaches about 3.6 billion people every day, and the company can promote Muse inside Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It used the same playbook with Threads, which grew out of Instagram’s user base.
Meta is also paying heavily for ads. Sensor Tower data shows Meta put 39% of its total ad spending toward Muse in October, up from 23% in September. Muse is now the 21st biggest U.S. brand by ad impressions, up from 73rd last month.
Big ad budgets can buy installs, but they cannot buy repeat visits. The retention numbers are the part of this story worth watching.
The models behind the app
Muse runs on Meta’s newer model family, including the Muse Wonder models the company introduced earlier this month. Meta also released an open-weight Muse model for developers.
What This Means for You
If you have been sticking with one AI app, this race is good news, since competition tends to bring better features and lower prices. Here are a few practical points to keep in mind.
- Try more than one assistant. Muse, ChatGPT and Claude each have different strengths, so test them on your own daily tasks.
- Watch your privacy settings. Agent apps that act for you can see a lot of personal data, so check what Muse can access and what gets shared.
- Expect fast changes. With this much money at stake, all of these apps will keep adding features quickly.
For a wider look at what is happening across the industry, you can follow our daily AI news coverage.
Sources
The figures in this story come from Sensor Tower estimates reported by TechCrunch.
Conclusion
Meta Muse has turned Meta’s reach and a heavy ad budget into one of the fastest app launches on record, with more than 10 million U.S. downloads in 40 days. What makes it more than a marketing story is that people are coming back to it more often than they return to rival AI apps. Daily users are still growing, and Meta is spending a large share of its ad budget to keep that going. For now, Muse has clearly become a serious challenger to ChatGPT in the U.S. The next few months will show whether that early lead lasts.
