The popularity of Muse is rapidly increasing, driven by Meta’s promotion during its annual developer conference this week and favorable early reviews highlighting its sleek design and advanced AI capabilities.
Since its launch on September 8, Muse has achieved over 3.4 million downloads, up from 2.5 million at the beginning of the week, according to recent data from Sensor Tower.
These figures are based on the firm’s Thursday estimates, which may not reflect the immediate real-time growth of the app.
The numbers do not fully account for the significant attention Muse attracted at the recent Meta Connect conference. During this event, Meta unveiled several new features for the AI app, such as video chatting capabilities with the Muse avatar, Mac compatibility, a unique email address, expanded partnerships, and plans for smart glasses integration.
Other market analysis firms report similar positive trends for Muse, though their download estimates differ. Apptopia, for instance, claims Muse has reached about 4.3 million total downloads, with 2.6 million occurring on iOS alone. Currently, Muse is only accessible in the U.S. and Canada.
Meanwhile, Appfigures estimates the number of Muse installs at approximately 2.3 million, nearly evenly split between iOS and Android platforms.
Following the Meta Connect conference, daily active users of Muse surged by 27% on Wednesday, as reported by Sensor Tower.
Before the conference, Muse was already gaining traction, amassing about 2.8 million downloads in the first two weeks after its launch. During that period (September 8 to September 17), Muse experienced an average daily growth of 55% in downloads, far exceeding ChatGPT’s 24% growth in its initial ten days. In contrast, the growth rates for Claude and Grok declined during their launches.
On September 18, Muse topped the U.S. App Store charts and has maintained its position since then. It also reached the top of the Google Play Store on September 19, where it stays today.
While much of Muse’s growth is organic, the app also benefits from cross-platform marketing strategies similar to those that propelled Meta’s Instagram Threads to over 500 million monthly active users, as Meta promotes Muse to its existing Facebook and Instagram user base.
However, according to Connor Hayes, Meta’s Head of Threads, the marketing approach for Muse varies from that of Threads. While Threads leverages user-generated content, Muse focuses on creating promotional content that illustrates the AI’s potential benefits tailored to individual users.
Sensor Tower’s data indicates that Meta began running in-house advertisements for Muse on September 9, just one day after its launch. Within a week and a half, Muse had garnered the majority of advertising promotions across Meta’s platforms, surpassing those for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Additionally, Meta has expanded its advertising for Muse across mobile ad networks and other social platforms, including Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube.
By September 22, Muse was among the top 10 brands in terms of advertising expenditure, according to Sensor Tower.
Despite this, Muse’s impressive growth cannot solely be attributed to Meta’s marketing as ads accounted for only 6% of the impressions from launch through September 19.
