Meta's Muse tops ChatGPT's early mobile download pace, Apptopia estimates show

Meta's new AI app Muse is off to a faster start on mobile than ChatGPT managed at its debut, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Apptopia reported by TechCrunch. Across the first twelve days of availability, Muse collected more downloads and more daily active users in the United States and Canada than ChatGPT did over the same stretch after its own launch.

The download comparison

A direct comparison between the two apps was previously awkward because their launch footprints do not match. ChatGPT arrived on mobile worldwide but only on iOS, while Muse shipped on both Apple's App Store and Google Play, yet only in the U.S. and Canada.

To line the numbers up, Apptopia narrowed its analysis to iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada for both apps during their first twelve days. On that basis, Muse recorded 1.8 million installs against 1.3 million for ChatGPT over the equivalent period.

Counting both app stores, Apptopia puts Muse at 2.8 million installs in its first twelve days. The momentum has not stalled either: Business Insider reported on Friday that Muse climbed from the No. 2 position on the U.S. App Store to No. 1, overtaking ChatGPT, and the analytics firm Appfigures noted that the app had passed 1 million downloads at that point.

Users are showing up daily

Downloads alone can overstate an app's health, but the engagement data points in the same direction. Apptopia's figures give Muse 642,000 daily active users in the U.S., compared with 231,000 for ChatGPT at the same point after its release.

Because Muse's presence on Android gives it a channel ChatGPT lacked at launch, Apptopia also isolated iOS-only daily active users. Even on that narrower measure, Muse registers 359,000 daily users, still ahead of ChatGPT's figures from the comparable period.

Meta's distribution machine

The pattern echoes the playbook behind Threads, which Meta grew past 500 million users through heavy marketing and integration with Instagram and Facebook. Muse looks positioned for the same treatment: it connects with both of those platforms and also works inside WhatsApp, which could add further reach.

There is early evidence that Meta's existing audience is doing the lifting. Apptopia found that more than 95 percent of Muse's users also use Facebook, and 63 percent use Instagram. The firm has no direct visibility into Meta's promotion or advertising, but the overlap suggests the app is being fed users from the company's established products.

Caveats on the data

These are third-party estimates. Apptopia does not have access to Meta's internal figures, so the numbers should be read as an approximation of scale rather than an exact count, a limitation TechCrunch itself flags. Meta, which was contacted for comment, has not released official adoption figures for Muse. Twelve days is also a short window, and a fast launch driven by promotion inside Facebook and Instagram does not guarantee the long-term retention that turns an app into a durable product.

Why it matters

If the estimates hold even roughly true, they suggest the consumer AI app race is far from settled. ChatGPT's head start has looked like a commanding lead, but Muse's early numbers demonstrate what happens when an AI assistant is pushed through apps that billions of people already open every day. For Meta, Muse could become its next flagship product and replicate the Threads trajectory. For OpenAI and other AI vendors, it is a reminder that in consumer software, distribution can matter as much as the model underneath.