Meta's Muse Hits 10M Downloads in 40 Days
Meta's Muse AI app reached 10.2M US downloads in its first 40 days, beating ChatGPT's launch pace. Sensor Tower data shows 23% user retention after 14 days.
Meta's new AI companion app, Muse, has become one of the fastest-growing mobile apps in history. According to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the app crossed 10 million US downloads within its first 40 days - a milestone that only 11 other apps have ever reached.
A rare download milestone
Sensor Tower estimates Muse has seen 10.9 million downloads since its September debut, with 10.2 million of them in the United States. That puts it in a very exclusive club. The most recent app to hit 10 million US downloads in 40 days was Meta's own Threads back in July 2023. Most of the others were mobile games like Fortnite, PUBG Mobile and Pokemon GO. Besides Threads, Disney+ was the only other non-game app to manage it. The pace beats every rival AI app. ChatGPT reached 3.7 million US downloads in its first 40 days, while Grok and Claude managed just 500,000 and 200,000. ChatGPT did reach about 15 million downloads worldwide in the same period, but it had a much wider launch - Muse is only available in the US and Canada for now.
Ads and cross-promotion power
Meta knows how to launch apps. Muse has been promoted across the company's family of apps, which reaches 3.6 billion daily active users. On top of that, Meta has poured money into advertising: 39% of its total ad spend went to Muse in October, up from 23% in September. Sensor Tower says Muse is now the 21st largest US brand by advertising impressions, up from 73rd last month.
Retention is the real test
Downloads show curiosity, not loyalty. The better news for Meta is that people are sticking around. In the US, Muse kept 30% of users after 7 days and 23% after 14 days. Rival AI apps averaged just 19% and 16% over the same periods. Daily active users hit 2.5 million for the first time on October 16, up 15% from the week before. One warning sign: Sensor Tower reports ChatGPT's US downloads fell 25% over the past 30 days compared with the previous 30-day stretch, a reminder that AI app attention can shift fast.
The agent race is just starting
Muse shot to No. 1 on the US App Store and has held the spot nearly every day since launch. It has also topped Google Play for the past 30 days. Meta presents Muse as a personal AI agent that can handle tasks like booking travel or filling out forms on a user's behalf. But as Microsoft and others pile in, the fight for the pocket AI agent is only beginning - and downloads alone will not decide the winner.
Sources
TechCrunch - https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/metas-muse-hits-10m-u-s-downloads-in-40-days-a-milestone-reached-by-only-11-other-apps/ 9to5Mac - https://9to5mac.com/2026/10/20/sensor-tower-metas-muse-app-tops-10-million-us-downloads-in-40-days/