Meta's Muse reaches 10 million U.S. downloads as retention outpaces AI rivals

Highlights

Meta's Muse app achieves 10.2 million U.S. downloads in 40 days, joining an elite group of 12 mobile apps reaching such scale quickly.
Meta increases Muse's share of total advertising spend to 39% in October, propelling the app to the 21st largest U.S. brand by ad impressions.
Muse posts a 30% seven-day and 23% fourteen-day retention rate in the U.S., outpacing ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok, and reaches 2.5 million daily active users on October 16.

Download growth and advertising push

As reported by TechCrunch, citing Sensor Tower, Muse has generated 10.9 million downloads since launch, with 10.2 million coming from the United States. The market intelligence firm's data indicates the app is now one of only 12 mobile apps to reach 10 million U.S. downloads in its first 40 days, a group that most recently included Meta's Threads in July 2023.

Sensor Tower Senior Insights Analyst Kara Lee says most apps that previously reached that scale were mobile games. Meta's distribution advantage is helping accelerate Muse's adoption, as the company promotes the AI companion across its wider app ecosystem, which includes 3.6 billion daily active users.

Advertising is also playing a larger role in the push. Sensor Tower's data shows Meta allocates 39% of its total advertising spend to Muse in October, up from 23% in the prior month, while the app rises to the 21st largest U.S. brand by advertising impressions from 73rd in September.

User retention and competitive position

Muse's early download surge is being matched by stronger retention than rival AI apps, suggesting the product is holding user interest after installation. In the U.S., the app posts a 30% retention rate after seven days and 23% after 14 days, versus average rates of 19% and 16% for competitors including ChatGPT, Claude and Grok.

The app also reaches 2.5 million daily active users for the first time on October 16, marking a 15% week-over-week increase. Since launch, Muse has remained No. 1 on the U.S. App Store on all days except October 19, when Kick briefly overtakes it, and it regains the top spot by Tuesday.

On comparative scale, Muse outperforms ChatGPT, Grok and Claude in the U.S. during their first 40 days, with ChatGPT at 3.7 million U.S. downloads and the latter two at 500,000 and 200,000 respectively. Globally, however, ChatGPT reaches about 15 million downloads over the same period, aided by broader availability, while Muse is currently limited to the U.S. and Canada.

In our earlier article on the KPMG U.S. CEO survey about AI agents, we reported that many large companies are seeing early efficiency and growth gains, even though only a small share of leaders consider the technology transformational so far. The survey also highlighted continued AI investment alongside hiring and retraining plans, underscoring that scaling AI requires process changes, better data readiness, and added engineering talent.

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