Meta’s newest AI app, Muse, is showing strong early momentum and could be on track to become one of the company’s biggest consumer AI products. New estimates from mobile analytics firm Apptopia suggest that Muse has attracted more downloads and daily active users during its first 12 days than ChatGPT did during the same period after its mobile launch.
The comparison is based on mobile activity and focuses on the U.S. and Canada, where the two apps had different launch conditions. To make the comparison more balanced, Apptopia examined iPhone downloads for both apps in those two markets during the first 12 days after launch.
Using that approach, Muse recorded about 1.8 million iOS downloads, compared with roughly 1.3 million for ChatGPT during its equivalent period. That gives Muse an early lead in downloads despite the differences between the two launches.
The overall numbers are also notable. Apptopia estimates that Muse reached approximately 2.8 million installs worldwide during its first 12 days. The app has continued climbing the U.S. App Store rankings as well, moving from No. 2 shortly after launch to No. 1, putting it ahead of ChatGPT on the chart.
Other mobile analytics data has also pointed to a rapid start for Muse. Appfigures previously estimated that the app had passed 1 million downloads, adding to signs that Meta’s new AI offering was gaining attention quickly after its release.
Muse is also showing strong engagement among the people who have downloaded it. Apptopia estimates that Muse had about 642,000 daily active mobile users in the U.S., compared with 231,000 daily users for ChatGPT at the same stage of its mobile rollout.
Even after limiting the comparison to iPhone users, where both apps can be evaluated on a similar platform, Muse remained ahead. Apptopia estimated around 359,000 daily active iOS users for Muse, compared with ChatGPT’s figure from the corresponding period.
There is an important limitation to these figures. Apptopia does not have access to Meta’s private user or download records, meaning the numbers are estimates rather than official figures from the company. The data should therefore be viewed as an indication of early performance rather than an exact count of Muse’s users.
Even with that limitation, the figures suggest that Muse is getting off to a strong start. The app is entering a market where ChatGPT already has a large and established user base, making its early mobile growth particularly notable.
Meta also has an advantage that could help Muse expand quickly: its enormous social media ecosystem. The company used aggressive promotion and integration across its platforms to help Threads gain hundreds of millions of users after its launch, and Muse could benefit from a similar strategy.
Muse can connect with Meta’s existing platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, giving the company multiple channels through which it can introduce the AI app to existing users. The app also works within WhatsApp, potentially giving it another major source of exposure.
Apptopia’s data provides some evidence of that connection. More than 95% of Muse users are estimated to also use Facebook, while about 63% are Instagram users. That overlap gives Meta a large existing audience that could potentially be encouraged to try the new AI service.
The early numbers do not necessarily mean Muse will maintain its lead over ChatGPT. ChatGPT has had considerably more time to build its user base, while Muse is still in the early stages of its rollout. User retention, continued downloads and how frequently people return to the app will be important indicators of whether its initial surge lasts.
Meta has not publicly released its own detailed figures for Muse’s early adoption. The company was asked for comment but had not provided official user numbers at the time of the report.
For now, however, third-party estimates point to a strong opening for Meta’s AI app. If Muse can maintain its current momentum and Meta continues pushing it across its social platforms, the app could quickly become a significant part of the company’s growing AI ecosystem.
